Paracosm
by Anti-social-psyche
Summary: They thought she was crazy. They thought he was imaginary. He had always promised her one thing and that thing was that he'd be with her forever. She promised to never forget him but she was never quite good with keeping promises. Years later Bella finds two things that she'd never expected to recover: her memory and him. He'd always been there just waiting for her to remember.
1. Long and Forgotten

**Disclaimer: We do not own Twilight or any of the characters**

**We didn't plan on starting this story, but we really want to get it out there.**

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><p>In the dark of the night, a widowed women walked leisurely, along the ominously dark hallways of her sleeping house. It was well past the hour of any child's bedtime and yet from the confines of her own bedroom she could clearly hear her dear Isabella talking as if it were the normal time of day to be throwing tea parties.<p>

The women trudged as silently down the hallway as she could, trying desperately not to make too much noise. She wanted to hear what her daughter was doing at this time of night before Isabella got the chance disguise her sneaky actions

"How do you know Renee is coming?" She heard Isabella asking curiously. Her voice was velvet and softness wrapped up in a warm blanket of happiness.

The women craned her head to the side inquiringly as she stopped outside of her daughter's bedroom door.

"She's standing outside of my door?" Isabella's voice was still as curious as ever.

The women knew then that her darling Isabella was well aware of her presence. She saw no more need in being discreet. She planned to reprimand her daughter accordingly, send the disobedient girl to sleep, and then retire to sleep herself. Renee turned the knob in her hand, pushed open her daughter's bedroom door, and frowned at the sight before her.

Isabella sat perfectly tranquil at the little, yellow tea-table Renee had purchased for her last Christmas. A cooling cup of pretend-tea rested in front of her, a pink tea pot was placed in the middle of the table, and at the other end a small chair was pulled out as if there were someone else enjoying Isabella's dainty tea party with her.

"Isabella." Renee said sternly. She looked at her daughter quite peculiarly. "Why are you up so late, little girl?"

Isabella opened her mouth to speak but closed it just as quickly. Her brown, doe eyes flickered to the chair across from her. Renee watched her daughter with great apprehension. Dear Isabella appeared to be heavily occupied with listening to something or someone. Yet there was no one else in the room with the two ladies. Isabella chuckled lightly and turned back toward her waiting mother. "I was having a tea party with Edward."

"Edward?" Renee asked, unable to mask the hysteria in her voice. "Didn't I tell you not to speak of that name in this house again Isabella? There is no such person called Edward Masen."

Isabella glanced towards the chair across from hers again. "Edward says not to believe you. He says that there is a reason why I am the only one who can see him. You would not understand mother."

"Oh?" Renee shook her head in confusion, worrying once again about her daughter's sanity.

There had always been something not quite right with her daughter and Renee had been reluctant to admit this fact at first. Isabella had always been an odd person. Even as an infant the little girl had displayed qualities unlike any other child Renee had ever seen. Little Isabella had never shed a tear her entire life until the year she had reached age seven. She had fallen off of bikes, broken priceless belongings of hers, and even fractured her ankle. None of that had been severe enough to draw tears out of the girl. But when Renee would insist that her little friend Edward was only a figment of her imagination the girl would explode into a frenzy of uncontrollable sobs.

For some reason the little, brown-eyed girl believed wholeheartedly that there was actually some being named Edward Masen. That was not the initial factor that made Renee question her daughter's sanity. It was completely normal for a child to create an imaginary friend for themselves. It was even normal for a child to believe that their imaginary friend was indeed a real person. It was not normal however, for a child to lose interest in everyone and everything that did not have anything to do with their fabricated companion. That was not normal behavior for a seven year old at all.

"Edward says that you think me to be insane mother." The child looked up at her mother with knowing brown eyes. There was only a small hint of sadness on the girl's face. Dear Isabella could not figure out why she was looked at so differently from everyone else. She didn't want to be a disappointment to her mother. She always did her very best to be a good little girl, but sadly she mostly only ended up frustrating Renee more.

"And why does Edward think that Isabella?" Renee challenged kindly, placing her hands onto her slender hips. She gave her daughter a reprimanding smile. She was ready to reject Isabella's answer rather closed-mindedly.

"Edward can read minds." Isabella said with great certainty. She glanced at the empty chair across from herself and giggled wildly. "Except for mines for some reason. He agrees with you that I am unusual but he insists that I'm unusual in a special way."

"Well Isabella, if your dear friend Edward can read minds won't you ask him to tell you what I am thinking of at this exact moment in time?"

Isabella was a crafty little girl and Renee knew this to be absolutely true. She did not want her daughter simply guessing what she was thinking. Renee was just a step away from actually considering that there was some invisible boy sitting in the chair across from her daughter.

No, that was utterly absurd. There was no such thing as real imaginary friends.

Renee thought wildly before she conjured up the most random thought that her tired old mind could think of at the moment. There was no way her daughter would guess that she was thinking of such an aimless word.

"Are you sure?" Renee watched her daughter as she questioned her invisible friend doubtfully. When Isabella turned back towards her mother, the little girl gave her an ironic look as if she had the nerve to find the lady unusual. "For some odd reason, Edward insists that you're thinking of a cat."

Renee felt the discomfort of her body stiffening with uneasiness. Her eyes went wide for a few long moments.

Surely, there could not have been an invisible entity residing by the name of Edward Masen. There was just no way that Isabella's imaginary friend was actually not imaginary. Renee would not lower her standard of beliefs to accept this.

But then, how in the world could Isabella have possibly known that she was thinking about such an inane creature. How could her luck have been so great to have guessed that word among the infinite variations of words in the English language?

"Go to sleep Isabella." Renee said dismissively. Her mind was unsurprisingly tired. She couldn't hope to think straight right now. She needed to get her daughter to bed and then she needed to get some rest herself. "You've got school in the morning."

Isabella started to gather up her toys to put away. She hummed quietly to herself, ignoring the way her mother's disapproving eyes followed her every movement. The girl was completely unaware of the fact that she was for a lack of better words, a weirdo.

"Goodnight mother." Isabella said after tucking her way deep into the confines of her covers. "Edward says that he is sorry for keeping me up so late."

Renee managed to show her daughter a small smile. Even though the girl was clearly insane, this was still her child. "Goodnight Bella." Renee flipped the switch of her daughter's light off and the room went pitch black.

The moment was impossibly still, Voices were sealed in silence, but for only a brief second.

Renee turned to exit the room, just as she heard her daughter giggling to herself again. "Goodnight Edward."

**PARACOSM**

**CHAPTER 1 : **

**LONG AND FORGOTTEN**

At the tender age of seventeen, Isabella Marie Swan already suffered from a very mild and unfortunate case of memory loss. It was not a hereditary illness. In fact, the cause of her memory loss had been the regrettable result of an electroshock therapy treatment she'd received as a child.

From age eleven and every single year before then, life for precious Isabella was nothing more than a blank canvas. She could not remember any of her younger birthdays, Her once fond memories of annual holidays and family friends were long gone, and though she definitely couldn't tell for sure she always vaguely felt like there was something or someone very important to her whom she could not remember.

"Isabella." Renee called merrily from the foyer downstairs. The relationship between the girl and the women had greatly improved throughout the years. Isabella no longer unnerved her mother and Renee no longer ostracized her daughter. "Angela is at the door for you. She's coming up."

Angela Weber was only one of the girls amongst Isabella's infinite list of friends. Isabella was no longer abnormal. She was much known around her hometown and not for bad reasons.

Renee was pleased that her daughter no longer had the need for a fabricated companion.

"Bella." Angela Weber said nicely. She reviewed her beautiful friend with envy and warmth. "Why aren't you answering your phone? I wanted to see if you'd like to go to the movies this weekend." Angela's voice was alight with hope.

Isabella and Angela had been conjoined at the hip during middle school, but as soon as high school came around the two of them diverged onto two completely different wavelengths.

Isabella appreciated her friend's invite, but she had no interest in being scorned for hanging out with someone in a lower social group than she was. In other words, Isabella didn't want her popular friends making fun of her because she found excitement in hanging out with a geek.

"Sorry, for not answering the phone. It must have been on silent." Isabella said at once. She refrained from looking her former friend inside of her kind eyes. "But I have plans with Mike this weekend anyway. Maybe we can do something next time."

"Yeah sure." Angela nodded her head vehemently. "Of course we can."

Angela gave her an earnest smile although, Angela Weber knew very well that Isabella was shunning her. Dearest Isabella had given her the same excuse last weekend and the weekend before that. The only thing that Angela really wanted from her distant friend was for her to have the heart to tell her the truth for once. She'd been Isabella's friend long enough to deserve an honest answer out of her, but Isabella would not give her one because she was just too nice to hurt Angela's fragile feelings.

"I hope you enjoy your movie Angela." Bella showed the girl a nice smile. Nevertheless, she was always polite. "I'm really sorry that I can't make it this weekend."

"Oh it's okay Bells. I'll see you later."

The two girls did not hug as they departed because that would have been awkward for plenty of different reasons. They only smiled at each other because it was the cordial thing to do.

"Isabella!" Renee called from downstairs, only a few short moments after Angela let herself out through the front door.

"Yes?" Isabella answered back wearily.

"What did that Weber girl want?" Angela Weber was every mother's ideal friend for their daughter. She was nice, and sweet, and much too good to follow the crowd of rebellious teenagers that most mothers dreaded. But Renee Swan never really liked the friendship between Angela Weber and her daughter. Isabella was aware of her mother's aversion towards her next door neighbor but she couldn't quite figure out what the cause of this confusing aversion was.

Angela Weber reminded Renee of a younger Isabella. The girl would much rather enjoy a day of solitude than be around peers her own age. Isabella was the only friend that Angela was ever blessed to have and Angela was the first non-imaginary friend that Isabella had made. They had once been perfect companions for each other, but Renee didn't want Angela's remoteness rubbing off on Isabella.

For when Isabella was alone she grew restless and lonely, and when Isabella grew restless and lonely she found solace in people who were otherwise non-existent.

"She wanted to know if I could go to the movies with her this weekend."

"And what did you say?" Renee asked curiously. She would not tell her daughter that she could not go with Angela, but she would adamantly express her disapproval until Isabella just decided not to go in an effort to please her.

Renee knew exactly how to get her way with her little girl. Isabella wanted to please her so badly and Renee knew that her daughter would do almost anything to gain her fickle approval.

"I told her that I had plans with Michael this weekend."

"Oh?" Isabella didn't need to see her mother's face to know that she was smiling. She could hear the sanction laced thickly inside of Renee's chipper tone. "What are you two going to be doing?"

"I don't know yet mother. He should be coming over for dinner tonight. We'll talk about it when he gets here okay?"

"Sure honey, I should set four plates then?"

Isabella sighed. There were usually only three plates. One for Renee, one for Isabella, and one for her new step-father Phil.

"That sounds great mom. I'm going to call him now to see if he still can make it."

"Okay honey. Let me know soon. The lasagna is almost done cooking."

Isabella reluctantly retrieved her cell phone from off of her bed stand. She dialed her boyfriend's cell phone number and could only pray that he would answer his phone this time. Isabella had been the object of Michael Newton's desire since their first year of junior high. He'd wanted her and everyone felt that she was in no place to deny him.

Her mother thought it was a very healthy choice for Isabella to form a relationship with Mike. She had never been more proud of her daughter than the day she brought him home for her to meet.

"Hello?" Mike Newton answered his cell phone on third ring. His voice was pleasantly youthful to Isabella's ears.

"Hey Mike." Isabella said. She stared out of her bedroom window as she talked. The snow outside looked like piles of sweet sugar. She smiled to herself as a familiar feeling washed over her. She knew that she'd played in the snow before. She just couldn't remember when or whom she was with.

"Hello Bella, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"

"I wanted to know if you were still able to come for dinner tonight." She hoped that he would not give her another faulty excuse. It would only do good in making Renee question her more about the things she was doing to keep Mike captivated in her. "Renee is cooking lasagna this time."

"That sounds great." It was a relief to hear him say that. She did not want her mother accusing her of disregarding her obligations as a girlfriend. It would only make her look to Mike's attractiveness even less. "Tell her that I'm definitely coming over."

"Great, I'll see you when you get here."

"I love you." Mike said this to her so honestly. Isabella started to believe that he was really telling her the truth for a moment, and then she remembered who she was talking to.

"I know you do." Isabella's smile lessened just a little. She was glad that he could not witness the fall in her expression. "I love you too."

**~~~~PARACOSM**

An hour later, dinner was finished and ready to be served. Four people sat quietly at the dinner table inside of Renee Dwyer's elaborately decorated dining room.

"So Mike..." Phil started, in a very fatherly like tone. He had no kids of his own but he had younger brothers and they had been Isabella's age only a few years ago. Phil was quite younger than her mother was. "Are you still on the football team?"

Mike forced himself to swallow the crispy lasagna inside of his mouth and nodded his head afterwards. If there was one thing Renee was known for it definitely wasn't her cooking. All of the edible meals ever to be served inside of the Swan/Dwyer household were either prepared by Isabella herself or ordered from restaurants around Forks.

Renee was never the house mother type.

"Yes sir, in fact I'm the quarterback on the varsity team." Mike said, in his proud to be popular voice. "I've set the highest touchdown record in the school's history."

Phil looked at the boy intently before grunting in approval. "That's impressive. Do you plan on taking an athletic scholarship to Washington State University next year?"

Mike shrugged his shoulders and looked at Isabella. The two of them shared a brief smile with each other. "Bella and I are planning on going to school somewhere out of town."

"Out of town?" Renee exclaimed loudly. "My little old Isabella is leaving this state all by herself?"

Isabella suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at her mother. She hated sentimentalist, especially when she knew that their sentiment was fake.

"I'm going to be with Mike mom. We're all grown up. We'll be able to take care of ourselves."

"Oh, I know Bella." Renee smiled lightly, something like pride flashed across her features. "Michael is more than capable of taking care of you. He's already proven to me how trustworthy he is. Don't you know how lucky you are?"

Isabella looked down at her cooling plate of what was supposed to be three-meat lasagna. She was not pleased that her mother was more fond of her boyfriend than she was. It made Isabella force herself to have feelings for him. It made Isabella secretly resent them all for controlling her. "Yes mother...I know how lucky I am."

"Good, You wouldn't want to let him slip through your fingers now would you?"

**...**

Dinner was uneventful. It only left Isabella feeling more trapped than she had felt been before. There was a fact that always seemed to nag Isabella Swan whenever she were to dwell upon it. That fact was that no one excepted her for who she truly was. Whenever she had a flaw someone would think to correct it. She was only what others wanted her to be and not who she wanted to be.

But even if they'd given her a chance to be her own person she would not know what to do with it. She did not know who she was and she could not remember what she might have previously wanted to be. It was a frustrating ailment to live with but she could not find it in herself to change it.

Renee and Phil left the house to the kids shortly after all of the dishes were washed and everything was put back into its place. They trusted Michael for some reason that was not entirely clear to Isabella. She did not know how they could not see just how like every other teenage boy Mike really was. His intentions were never pure.

"Where did your parents go Bella?" Mike asked curiously, taking a seat beside Isabella on her canopy bed. The girl glanced at her boyfriend's hand wearily. It was already sliding it's way towards her inner thighs and they hadn't even been alone for five minutes yet.

"I uh...I think they just went to the movies."

Mike smiled widely, his blue eyes sparkled with anticipation. "So that gives us a few hours to fool around huh?"

"No...wait Mike." Isabella placed her soft hand over his large fingers to stop their duplicitous advance towards her skirt. Mike looked down at her impatiently. A hardened frown quickly took the place of the cheerful smile that had just graced his face a second ago. He waited for her to continue. "Can't we talk for a moment first?"

"Talk about what Bella? Are we to talk all damn day?" He looked at her with the eyes of a selfish manipulator. "I want to fuck you right now. If I even remember how to do it. We never have sex anymore. Stop wielding your fucking legs shut."

Mike was Isabella's first in everything. She'd been reluctant to give herself away to him so easily, but he'd been so nice and sweet about it. She would have never fathomed that he would ever become the person who was now staring back at her so stubbornly.

"Perhaps Jessica Stanley would be easier to seduce. You would know right?" The blue of Mike's eyes widened at her blunt accusation. "Things don't stay secret for long Mike. You should know that by now."

"Where the fuck did you pull that assumption from Bella?"

Isabella flinched at Mike's violent tone. There was only one instance where Mike had gotten mad enough at her to discipline her by the way of his hands. Afterwards, he'd apologized to Isabella for several days until her mother finally convinced her to take him back.

"I...Jessica...um Jessica told me." She wasn't quite as confident as she would have liked to have been. She'd wanted to show Mike that he could not disrespect her and control her.

He scoffed irritably, as if her assumption was especially absurd. "Bella have you not known how long Jessica Stanley has been on my dick? She would want you to think that I want her for exactly this reason right here." He pointed to his girlfriend's stature. Isabella had a slight frown on her otherwise pretty face, her arms were crossed over her chest, and her lips were jutted out in an attractive pout.

"It's happened before." She glanced away from his smoldering gaze, focusing her attention on her hands instead. "I had no choice but to believe her."

Isabella didn't like bringing up past occurences. She didn't usually like living in the past but she would never allow herself to forget. Her memory was already so lost to her. Forgetting any other aspect of her life was just a terrifying thing to imagine.

"For fucks sake Bella, we were freshmen back then. I was young and foolish. Get over it okay?"

"I don't like the way that you're talking to me Mike." Isabella looked at him balefully. She resented him. She loved him. "You need to calm down."

"And you need to chill out, Baby girl." Mike smiled, and moved to hover over his girlfriend with purpose. He leaned down to kiss her.

Isabella allowed this with great reluctance.

His lips moved with hers ardently, tongue pushing past her swollen lips, and somehow finding it's way inside of her warm mouth.

Isabella allowed this too.

His hands acquired a mind of their own. Moving back down her body to grip the fabric of her panties underneath her skirt.

Isabella did not allow this.

She pulled away from his lips roughly.

"No Mike." She said sternly. She moved her hands to his chest. Her efforts to push him off of her were feeble. Mike was a football player. He was physically strong. Isabella was a little girl compared to him and she definitely wasn't strong. "We're not having sex."

"Yes we are." He insisted huskily. His voice was domineering, with a finality that indicated that the decision was his to make and not hers. "You know you want it."

Mike moved to his own pants. He fumbled with the zipper of his jeans with one hand while the other held Isabella in her place. This was a terribly erotic game inside of the boy's mind. He gave no regard to how she felt, just to how her resisting excited him more than anything else she had to offer. He only wanted her for two reasons. She was a trophy to show off and a sexual indulgence.

"No, Not today." Isabella tried again. Her tone was nowhere near the sternness she had hoped for. How could she expect Mike to take her seriously when she couldn't even will herself to be assertive?

"Yes baby, do you feel that?" Mike nodded his head. Pressing his lips back onto hers and pushing his body flush against her. He could not hear a word that she was saying. He'd trained himself so well to tune out the things he found uninteresting. "Do you have any idea how much I want you Bella? Don't you like giving me what I want?"

Isabella noticed the frightening dominance inside of Mike's eyes at once. She closed her own eyes in resignation. Mike knew this was her sign of surrendering to his wishes. They had been through situations like this plenty of times before. Mike was almost always the one who got his way in the end.

When the two were opposing each other, Isabella would lose her determination along the way. She could start off strong and feel some sorts of fire under her skin. She would know exactly what she wanted or did not want and she would have a plan to make that clear. There was something about men and the way they just took things that frightened her however. Renee would advise her daughter to keep her mouth shut and to simply go along with their wishes. Mike knew that all he had to do was provoke a little bit of fear within the girl and then he'd have her at his mercy.

He got his pants undone. His boxers down. His intentions were very clear.

Isabella only gasped softly when she felt the intrusion of pleasure warp throughout her. Mike filled her fully. His movements were erratic and rough. There was no concern for Isabella in his mind whatsoever. While he drowned in the familiar feeling of ecstasy his only concern was himself.

"Fuck...Beeellla!" Mike moaned his girlfriend's name as he moved within her. "You feel sooo goood."

It didn't last long. It never did.

That was about the only thing that Isabella truly liked about Mike. She knew in other cases most girls would feel the exact opposite.

Ten minutes later, Mike was cleaned up and his whole goal for coming to visit his girlfriend had been accomplished. He felt no need in spending any more time with her. When he wanted her again he knew that she would always be willing. "I have to get going Bella."

"Of course." Isabella offered him a weak smile and nodded her head. "Tell your mother I said hello. I'll see you at school tomorrow."

Mike pressed a tender kiss to Isabella's mouth. He left her then and Isabella was all alone again. Her routine with him was always the same. It used to hurt her feelings to know just how much he didn't care for her, but now she didn't even give it a second thought.

She was actually sort of pleased that his feelings for her were entirely carnal. It made her feel less remorseful for hating him.

**...**

It was about a quarter until seven and the girl had nothing else to do with her time. Her mother was not here to give her any orders. She almost felt lost without the instructions of another on her mind.

She decided to start getting ready for the next day that was ahead of her. Her nightly routine forever began with her shower. Today she ran her water scalding hot to make sure all of the impurities were washed away from her body. She scrubbed her tender skin until she no longer felt tainted.

Then she brushed her teeth, washed her face, curled her hair, and slipped on her pajamas.

The final component of her bedtime ritual was the part when she found her clothes for the next day. Isabella opened her walk-in closet with an outfit already in mind. She saw that half of the hangers on the racks were without clothes and then Isabella instantly remembered that her mother had washed yesterday. Renee always washed on Saturday mornings and that was why Isabella's clothes were still downstairs in the laundry room.

The girl groaned quietly. She slipped on her satin slippers, tied her robe securely around herself, and made her way towards the basement.

Isabella hated going downstairs. It was always so cold like the bitter winter weather and dark like most of the restless nights that accompanied her. It was the very epitome of a child's worst nightmare.

Isabella went to work, retrieving her clothes out of the dryer and folding them neatly in her basket to take upstairs. Once she'd gotten all of her clothes, she closed the dryer and quickly went to make her retreat.

Her only plan was to get herself out of the cold basement before she potentially froze to death, but something very peculiar caught her eye as she neared the stairs.

There was an extra room in their basement. The room had always been there for as long as Isabella could remember, but Renee always kept the door locked and never once let Isabella venture inside to see what was in there. It had always been a household rule to stay out of the room in the basement. Though the reason for that rule had never fully been established. Isabella just knew that she was not supposed to go in there and that she should never question her mother if she wanted to stay on her good side.

In the hurry that Renee Dwyer was in today she'd left the door unlocked and open. She would have never dreamed of Isabella's captivation to see what was on the other side of the forbidden door.

Letting her curiosity get the best of her, Isabella carefully set her basket of clothes onto the hard basement floor. She moved quickly towards the neglected door in fear that her mother might come home and find her.

The last thing that the girl needed was for Renee to be upset with her. She would be in her mother's graces for days trying to regain back her acceptance. And Isabella knew that her mother would just enjoy a chance to order her around more than ordinarily.

Isabella contemplated for a moment. If her mother hadn't wanted her to see what was inside of the room she must have been hiding something, but surely whatever Renee wanted to keep secret couldn't have been too obscene otherwise she wouldn't have hidden it in her own house.

Isabella's small fingers wrapped around the cold, rusted door knob as she made her decision. She would just take a quick survey and then be on her merry way. She pushed the wooden door inward and found herself inside of an unexciting storage room. Finding a light switch on the wall, Isabella turned the lights on in the room so she could see.

She was completely and utterly confused.

There were paintings, drawings, and pictures lined along the walls. Tons of notebooks were scattered around the floor. A little, yellow tea-table that she did not remember playing with sat lonely against the wall with tons of other toys that she'd never seen.

Isabella had been expecting to walk into a room of atrocious secrets and not a room filled with her lost childhood memories. She was completely disinterested with everything inside of the small room except for one painting in particular. She moved forward to pick it up and study it more closely.

Messy bronzed hair... She ran her fingers along the fine masterpiece.

Piercing green eyes... She smiled at the warmth.

Kind smirking lips... Her heart tugged. He was so beautiful.

Pale opaque skin... She hugged the picture to her chest.

Youthful, beautiful, real...

Isabella allowed herself to feel personal with the painting of the little boy. She could not hold onto it exactly, but she felt a tug of remembrance flicker inside of her somewhere. The boy looked oddly familiar but she couldn't remember if she'd actually known him or not.

A hot moment of impatience sat with her. She was always mildly irritated that she couldn't remember anything but tonight it was too fucking inconvenient.

She noticed that there were plenty of other paintings of the same boy.

Had she painted them? She couldn't have. She had no skills in painting whatsoever and the paintings in this room were elaborately constructed by someone with passion.

It just couldn't have been Isabella but if not her...who else?

She knelt down and picked up one of the old notebooks. Maybe she'd written about the familiar boy. She opened the book, struggling a bit to read her formerly messy handwriting.

* * *

><p><em>May 2, 1994<br>_

_I am Isabella Swan, I am seven years old_

_My mother does not believe me when I say that I have a best friend named Edward. How can she not take my word for this when he is so clearly visible to me? In fact, he is sitting right next to me as I write this. _

_He has a kind smirk on his lips at the moment. His eyes are piercing and green as he reads what I am writing. His hair is messy and weirdly bronzed. His skin is so pale and smooth. I want to run my fingers against it._

_I am kind of worried that my mother will make me stop being Edward's friend. She always gets upset whenever I try to mention him._

_Edward tells me that it doesn't matter that she does not believe me. He says that as long as I never start to forget him that he will always be here with me._

* * *

><p>Isabella closed her old notebook forcefully. Her eyes widened into enormous brown ovals as a trickle of hard realization hit her. A slither of her erased memory seemed to crashed into her out of the blue, as if her silly childhood writings had invited their arrival. It was an overwhelming sensation. Recollections of things she found impossible began to swarm her mind viciously.<p>

She looked down at the painting once more. She could say that she remembered that boy somehow. She remembered him just enough to recall spending an enormous amount of her childhood with him.

"Edward?" She whispered to herself quietly, his name felt oddly eerie slipping from her tongue. She could remember him. She could remember sitting at that tea table and drinking fake tea together. She could remember the warmth his smile could bring her and the chill that his touch always gave her.

He was real. He always had been real.

"It's about time." Said a haunting voice, smooth with decadence and branded something bitter.

Isabella just about just about jumped out of her skin at the sound of it. She let out a yelp of surprise for she had not expected an intrusion and she turned quite ungracefully to face her invader.

When her fearful eyes landed on a boy about her age leaning against the door frame to the little room, her jaw just about dropped onto the floor.

"E...Edward?" She asked shakily. Fear encompassed her entire body as she studied the attractive boy. He was definitely not the little boy he'd been on the painting anymore. Of course with age he'd gotten considerably taller. His body stature was lean but slightly toned. He boasted strength but not in a conspicuous way. His face was all precise sharp, cuts, and angles. There was unabashed youth still inside of the dimple within his chin. His eyes were the mesmerizing green as before but somehow darker with emotion. There were deep purple shadows beneath his eye as if he'd missed out on years of sleep. His skin was was so pleasantly milky-white that she longed to touch it. Though the slow curl of his lips advised her otherwise.

There was no longer a kind smirk waiting there for her. In fact, the smirk on his lips was nothing of kindness. He was sinister and dark, his wispy hair falling freely into the midst of his magnetic eyes. "This can't be happening to me."

Isabella took a moment to question her sanity.

"Beautiful girl." Isabella's eyes widened once more. Actually hearing the sound of his voice made this all the more real. His voice was the phantom father of all that was frightening and beautiful. "Did you miss me?"


	2. Bitter Reunion

**Disclaimer: We do not own Twilight or any of the characters**

**We didn't plan on starting this story, but we really want to get it out there.**

**Give it a chance**

**Read and Review**

**This story maybe confusing, but everything will get explained more thoroughly as the chapters go on.**

* * *

><p><strong>-PARACOSM-<strong>

**CHAPTER 2 :**

**BITTER REUNION**

The girl was bombarded with a series of overwhelming emotions. She had never really believed that there was something unreasonably wrong about her mentality before this day. She hadn't given much thought to the rumors she would hear in school from time to time. She'd never once doubted her stability, not even when her mother had sent her to a shrink when she was younger.

But this day was the day that she realized her mother had always been right. This was the day she realized that she really was insane and she probably always had been.

"Well?" The boy asked expectantly. He tilted his head to the side in dark curiosity, as he watched the simple girl stare back at him. Her wide brown eyes felt frozen in place. She wanted to look away from him so badly but she just couldn't. "Did you miss me or not Isabella?"

Even though she had no idea what he was expecting to hear from her, Isabella opened her mouth to answer his question anyway, but she was instead cut off by the curt sound of his bitter laughter.

"Of course you didn't miss me. You forgot all about me." His green eyes narrowed in brute accusation. The anger of being forsaken was evident across his beautiful face of perfection.

"Forgot you?" Isabella asked incredulously, she could not dispel the feelings of hysteria that were beginning to spread their way throughout her body. "To forget you would mean that you actually existed. How do I know I'm not crazy? I could be hallucinating. I could be dreaming this whole thing. I've gone completely mad haven't I?"

"Don't fucking do that." The boy snapped threateningly. His eyes narrowed into abysmally dark slits. "Every time someone says that imaginary friends don't exist another one of us drops down dead...we can't have me dying. Not when we've just been reunited."

Isabella tried to ignore the ominous undertone in his voice. "Are you even actually alive?"

The boy lifted his lanky shoulders, in the way of a nonchalant shrug. His face was hard with an obvious resentment. "You created me Isabella so I am whatever you desire me to be. As long as you don't forget me again." The hostility in the boy's voice took Isabella by surprise.

"Are you really so upset?" She asked, wondering where he'd been over the span of six years. She understood that she'd forgotten him, but he was imaginary for Christ sake. Surely he couldn't have expected her to hold onto her childish tendencies forever.

"I have a reason to be!" He snapped harshly, kicking himself away from the door frame and turning towards her completely. "But I wouldn't expect you to understand Isabella. You've always been this."

He pointed towards her. At her body. She realized at once that he was emphasizing the fact that she was indeed a real person.

"You've always been real. You've always had a heart beat. You've always had a mother and a father. You have never had to rely on someone to keep you from disappearing completely or from evaporating into nothing. You will never know the feeling of being banished to a land where all of the forgotten dreams wait...hoping in vain that they will be remembered some day."

"I didn't know." She said quietly. She wasn't quite so sure how this imaginary boy could make her feel so guilty at all. He was but only a figment of her imagination.

"You didn't know?" He questioned, his dark green eyes almost black in their color. "Well, just imagine the feeling Isabella. Just only for a moment."

His voice flowed with the imagery of the picture that he was trying to paint before her. Isabella found herself cringing as she listened to him.

"Imagine floating around in a realm. You don't know what this realm is and it is so dark around you. There is no light in this realm. You do not sleep in this darkness because you are merely nothing in every sense of the word, and if you are nothing you have no needs." Isabella almost wanted to tell him to stop his storytelling, the guilt that she felt was growing more profound as he went on. But she didn't tell him to stop and he continued nonetheless. "You somehow know that you are waiting for something but you don't quite have an idea of what you are actually waiting for. And suddenly one day or night; you don't know what point of time it is because you have no sense of what time is, you are suddenly pulled from out of that comfortable realm."

Isabella watched him as he continued to talk. Her chest constricted with the pain that was so obviously detected from within him.

"You are thrusted into a cruel world where you are invisible to everyone. The acknowledgment of your existence is void by every other person around you except for one little girl, but that is okay for you because that one little girl is the person who gives you a reason to be. She is your only solace. She is the only thing that you have ever known to love."

Edward stopped shortly, casting Isabella a very vulnerable look. She could feel something inside of her shattering, because it was so evident that she had shattered him to pieces.

"Edward I..." She started sympathetically.

"No, you will let me finish!" He shouted angrily and Isabella could not help but to flinch at his loud tone. She was not sure how she'd let herself become afraid of something that did not exist. There was something very real about the anger he directed towards her though. "I'm not quite ready for your words of apology yet. You haven't even heard the best part."

She wanted to protest but the look on his face shut her up just long enough to finish listening to him recall his agony.

"After you realize that this girl is the only reason for your existence, you try to cling to her for all hope that she's satisfied with you. You watch her, protect her, and provide her with any means of entertainment that she wants. You do all of this for her because she is love in every sense of the word."

Edward looked down and Isabella almost thought that his tale had ended, but somehow she knew he wouldn't stop right there.

"Then one day the little girl suddenly doesn't need or want you anymore. You are quite confused, as you feel yourself being dissolved back into nothing. You end up in a place of black and white where millions of other beings like you are in the same unfortunate predicament. You are all conscious and cursed. All you can do is wait for that one little girl to remember you again."

"I'm so sorry." Isabella gasped. She could only imagine the way he'd felt. Trapped, lonely, desolate, and perhaps a lot like the way that she was feeling now.

Edward gave her a slight nod, though there was nothing of forgiveness on his face. "I guess that's a start."

He moved toward her, and Isabella's eyes couldn't precisely follow his flight. He'd moved so quickly that his body was no more than a blur. Isabella was startled by his impossible speed. Even more startled by that than she was by his gracefulness and his beauty, now he stood right in front of her.

His face was a canvas of mixed emotions. Isabella couldn't help but feel a little fearful as he backed her against the wall. "We need to make one thing clear now, my love."

"What's that?" She queried apprehensively.

He touched her face with the very tips of his fingers, feeling the warmth of her soft skin. She tried to move away from him, but he grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him. When he spoke again she could feel the pleasant chill of his sweet breath on her face. His voice was an ominous warning. "It won't be quite so easy to get rid of me this time."

He pressed his cold lips to her cheek, and in the blink of an eye he was gone.

**~~~~PARACOSM**

The rest of the night was severely unwelcoming towards a distraught Isabella Swan. Every time she'd opted to close her eyes for sleep the image of a stunning bronze haired boy entered her mind.

When Isabella had woken up for the third time that night, she sat up in her bed to see the time.

It was three in the morning. Well past the hour of anyone's bedtime.

She felt as if the whole night had been nothing but a dream. She'd felt that she was going to wake up for real at any minute now, and then she'd laugh at how ridiculous she was being. She desperately wished that she would wake up. She wanted this to be a dream so badly.

Somehow, the girl knew that the events which had occurred this night were very real. She didn't particularly know why, but she suddenly felt a tugging need to call upon her old friend.

"Edward?" She whispered softly, into the darkness of her bedroom. Part of her felt foolish that she was requesting the presence of an imaginary entity, and the other part of her felt utterly afraid. She didn't know how stable or unstable her Edward was now.

To be entirely truthful, she didn't really even know how stable her own self was anymore.

"Are you there?" She whispered again. She was thinking about him vigorously now and she could almost vaguely remember a time when Edward had told her himself that he'd always be with her when ever she thought of him.

* * *

><p><strong><em>~Flashback~<em>**

_A small girl of the age five sat all alone inside of her quiet room. Her favorite past time was staring out of her window and watching other children play outside. She'd seen time and time again, the other children of her neighborhood flitting past her house together on their roller blades and bicycles. She'd longed for a generous amount of time to have a companion of her own by her side._

_She would often imagine herself playing with the children outside but Isabella knew that she would never really fit in with them. She was just so unlike them and she knew that fact to be true._

_It was after her acute realization that dear Isabella began to imagine herself a purely unique friend. _

_It couldn't be a girl because Isabella had found out very quickly that she didn't quite relate with the other girls her age. _

_She imagined herself friends with a boy. She always loved the color green and so green was to be the color of his kind eyes. The same color of the granny-smith apples she loved so much._

_He had to be different than all of the other boys. So he would have to wear crazy red hair around his head that would remind her of fire whenever it was shined upon by the sun._

_ She imagined the pretty sight of his bright crooked smile. He would have perfect white teeth and a soft musical voice. _

_Isabella knew that she could imagine all she wanted. The unlikely reality of ever getting to have her perfect friend was a little more than upsetting to the girl. With a forlorn sigh, she turned herself away from the window. _

_"Why are you sad?" Said a voice that was richer than the milkiest of chocolates. Isabella's brown eyes widened at the sight of the little boy who now stood before her. He was a more precise image of the boy in her thoughts than a mirror could ever provide._

_"How did you get in here?" Isabella inquired curiously. The little green-eyed boy looked harmless enough. She wouldn't allow herself to be afraid of him._

_"You thought me in here." He said simply. "You wanted a friend. Now you've got one." He flashed her a nice toothy smile. He had to be the single most beautiful thing that Isabella's doe eyes had ever rested upon._

_"What are you called?" Isabella watched the boy's eyebrows furrow in confusion. How odd...could a five year old boy not know what his own name was?_

_"You haven't given me a name yet. What shall you call me?" He smiled at her expectantly. His green eyes were sparkling pleasantly from the sunshine streaming into her room. _

_It was Isabella's turn to furrow her eyebrows. She cocked her head to the side. "Don't you already have a name?"_

_"I didn't even exist before three minutes ago. You just created me. Don't you know what an imaginary friend is?" He asked the girl, as if she were slow to understanding, as if the thought of a real imaginary friend should have come easily to her._

_"Yes." Isabella shook her head. Brown waves of hair cradled her face. "I mean no...I mean...yes, but I didn't actually think they were real."_

_"Maybe I'm not real." The boy pondered thoughtfully as he outstretched his pale arm in front of him. "I feel pretty real though."_

_"Would I be able to feel you then?" Isabella inquired. To which the small boy simply shrugged his slender shoulders. surrendering to her curiosity the young girl stepped forward and wrapped her frail arms around the boy's body. She was completely shocked by the fact that he felt like an actual person._

_She closed her eyes in appreciation. She was enjoying the odd sensation, when he'd abruptly pulled out of her embracing grasp._

_Isabella looked at the boy peculiarly._

_"You're burning hot." He said wryly._

_"No." Isabella shook her head. "You're just really cold."_

_The two children stared at each other. Both of them not quite sure how to proceed._

_"How did you really even get here?" Isabella finally asked. She could not wrap her head around the thought of a real boy appearing out of thin air._

_"All imaginary friends start off merely as loose thoughts...we float around presently in the dream realm where we're not yet real. And when people need us we manifest into this realm."_

_"So, you're only here until I don't need you?" The girl put no effort in trying to mask the disappointment inside of her voice. The boy only smiled at her in endearment._

_"Don't sound so sad. I'm here until you don't want me anymore. I'm yours and I promise I'll be with you always."_

_"Always? Everywhere?"_

_"I'll be with you whenever you think of me."_

_Isabella smiled happily. For she secretly knew that the boy would be with her forever because she'd always think of him. This was the first time that she'd ever have a friend and she had no intentions of letting him go._

_"Edward Masen." She said suddenly. She'd always loved the name Edward. "You look like an Edward Masen."_

_"Edward?" The boy pondered aloud. He looked at the girl and chuckled lightly. He was named so she was planning on keeping him. This thrilled him. He could already tell that this pretty little girl was going to show him what love was. "I shall be him then. Just don't forget me Isabella."_

_"I promise I won't." And she thought that she meant it._

_This was the eventful day that started the doomed friendship of the lonely little girl named Isabella and the imaginary friend called Edward._

* * *

><p>"All you have to do is think of me and I shall be with you."<p>

Isabella's head snapped around to the direction of the woeful voice. She spotted Edward sitting idly on her window ledge. He was staring out at the nighttime, appreciating the soft glow of the yellow moon.

"I didn't think you'd come." Isabella said softly, but she was oddly comforted by the fact that he was here.

Edward didn't turn to look at her when he replied. "I keep my promises." He said quietly. He did not bring up the fact that Isabella had broken all of her promises that she'd made to him. Every single one of them.

"Where do you go? I mean...when you're not with me." There was something frightening about the unknown possibilities that this world held. Isabella found herself curious about his world just as much as she was curious about him.

"There's a place for people like me. It's called the Forge of Dreams." He paused a bit, maybe appreciating something to himself in silence. "It really is such a beautiful place Isabella. It is a place for a piece of mind."

"Why didn't you just go back there when I forgot about you then?"

"Because while there is a place for imaginary friends there is also a very specific place for the forgotten friends as well. If you're not actually real in the first place and the only person who you exist to forgets you, then you're not actually anything anymore are you? You're not even an imaginary friend anymore. You're just nothing at all."

Isabella couldn't express how guilty she felt. Not in actual words anyway. She couldn't remember a lot of it, but something in her heart told her that the two of them had loved each other very much. She'd ruined it because she forgot. How could she have forgotten every single thing?

"No need to feel remorse now. What's done is done Isabella." Edward's voice was void of any type of warmth what-so-ever. This made Isabella sigh softly. She could remember Edward being a lot more friendlier, but then maybe she would be a little bitter too if she'd been banished to the Land of Forgotten Dreams.

"You've seemed to change a lot." She said this with no intentions of offending him. She stated this as a mere observation.

"So did you." Edward retorted evenly. "Just because you forgot about me doesn't mean that I couldn't still watch you. I think that is what tortures us the most. We're all painfully aware that we are forgotten, but we're still granted to see our friends go on happily without us. Though you haven't seemed so happy the last few years."

Isabella decided not to comment on the fact that he seemed fiendishly delighted from that fact. "Maybe I was unhappy because I didn't have you around."

Edward chuckled quite humorlessly. "I highly doubt my absence had anything to do with your unhappiness. You can't miss something that you don't remember. You were probably unhappy because of the people you choose to surround yourself around. Mike Newton?" The boy raised his eyebrows questioningly.

Isabella could tell by the way that he sneered Mike's name that he didn't particularly like him.

"There's nothing wrong with Mike." Isabella countered defensively. She did not know why she was so quick to defend him though. "He's one of the best decisions I've ever made."

Edward scoffed. He looked at his creator as if he were suddenly repulsed by her. "Only you would say something like that Isabella. He practically raped you!"

"Rape?" Isabella gasped at Edward's harrowing allegation. "He would never do such a thing. I consented."

"Yeah, after failing to push him off of you." Edward's eyes darkened as he moved to kneel beside Isabella's bed. She looked down at him wearily. "I'll tell you this one time and one time only Isabella."

"What?" Her voice was much too weak for her liking. Edward didn't seem so harmless anymore. She allowed herself to feel afraid of him now.

"If he ever touches you in a forceful or indecent manner again...I promise you that I will fucking kill him."

Isabella felt her bones chill and not from the cold words that had come out of Edward's mouth, but because she knew that this Edward would definitely stay true to his word.

He kept all of his promises. Every single one of them.

She gulped before looking away from him.

"You should get back to sleep." Edward said, after a moment of silence. His voice had lost a considerable amount of it's coldness. "You do have school in the morning don't you?"

Isabella nodded her head. "I've been tossing and turning all night though."

"Perhaps you need to clear your mind then." Edward suggested calmly, There was a hint of his old self in his expression when he looked at her. When she surveyed him now she could see that he still cared. "Close your eyes and think of absolutely nothing. You should fall asleep easily enough."

"Can't you lay with me?" She wondered quietly. Edward gave her an odd look. "Just until I fall asleep...please?" Isabella didn't quite understand her feelings towards her imaginary friend yet. He frightened her and intrigued her. She wanted him hear her but at the same time she was scared to be by him.

"Very well then." He said agreeably. He was secretly thrilled by the fact that she wanted him near. He had missed her so much that his soul hurt. He'd missed her touch and warmth. He had needed someone there for him while he rotted in that dreadful place.

He'd wanted her to remember him so badly...

Isabella scooted to the further end of her bed and opened her covers to invite him under with her. Edward smiled slightly at Isabella's gesture, but kindly shook his head. Messy tendrils of hair fell into his darkened eyes. Isabella tried not to gawk at his beauty.

"I don't think you'll ever fall asleep if you're freezing. I don't want to make you cold." Instead of accepting her invitation Edward took a spot on Isabella's bed above the warm comforters that were wrapped around her. Isabella frowned at their distance but instead of voicing her mild displeasure she simply moved over until she was arm to arm with Edward. He looked down at her questionably, but he allowed her to hold onto his shirt, and place her head on his chest.

Isabella felt her eyes shut just as Edward began to hum a familiar melody into the silence. She felt a small smile cover her face before unconsciousness swallowed her completely.

**~~~~PARACOSM**

When Isabella woke up again it was morning and she was alone.

She'd almost thought about calling to Edward but she knew that she had to get ready for school. She also knew that Mike would be coming to pick her up soon and she hadn't forgotten what Edward had warned her about last night.

"Are you up Isabella?" The lady Renee called from her bedroom down the hall.

"Yes mother. I'm going to take my shower now."

The girl's morning routine was almost as exact as her nightly routine. Shower, wash face/brush teeth, do hair, and dress.

By time she was finished with it all, a car horn was blowing outside. Knowing her ride was here she grabbed her tote bag, said her goodbye's to her mother, and rushed out to meet her boyfriend.

"Good morning." The boy said sweetly. He handed her a bag. The aroma of chocolate encapsulated the air inside of the car. "I stopped and got you some breakfast. A chocolate croissant and a caramel hot chocolate."

Isabella smiled and pecked her boyfriend's cheek lightly. After his crude behavior yesterday the girl hadn't expected something so considerate from him. Though the gesture was thoroughly simple Isabella still allowed herself to be flattered by it.

"Thank you Mike. You're really too kind for your own good." The girl was not dull. Her simple judgement was just innocently affected by the opinions of those around her. Her mother and her friends constantly gushed about what a good boyfriend Michael had been to her. She'd only thought it was a good idea to try and hold onto to him.

At school, Isabella Swan was a person of many faces. She was the girl that everyone wanted her to be. She was disliked by few and known by plenty.

In her earlier years of life she had never intended on being this girl, but Isabella would do almost anything to please her mother.

"Bella." Rosalie Hale and Alice Brandon rushed up to her with smiles alight on their attractive faces. Isabella smiled at the two girls because she figured it was the polite thing to do.

"Are you pleased with this morning?" Alice asked her friend curiously. She touched Isabella's hair endearingly. Isabella allowed herself to believe that it was a nice gesture, and then her friend tucked the stray piece of Isabella's wavy tendrils behind her ear. It was not simply a nice gesture. It was Alice's way of fixing Isabella into what she wanted her to be. It was such an inane thing to everyone else but Isabella felt indignant. She was not broken and so she did not need to be fixed. "You look much better with your hair back." Alice smiled brightly.

"Thanks Alice...and yes. This morning is doing me well."

"How was your night then?" Rosalie asked, in the same genuinely curious voice Alice had used.

"She was with me." Mike said suggestively. "So you must know that she had a good time."

Isabella chuckled, but when she reviewed her night she was not thinking of the minimal amount of time she'd spent with Mike. She was thinking about Edward. She was thinking about his compelling mysteriousness and his darkness. She was thinking about the substantial amount of time that she'd lost with him and that despite the fact that they lost that time he was still so willing to care for her.

She was also thinking deeply about the reality of him resenting her. Isabella actually knew quite well that a person could care for someone extensively, and at the same time dislike them with a passion.

A hollow dread of sadness filled her as she thought about Edward's mixed feelings. She didn't know what she could do to change them or if she could change them at all, but she knew that she wanted to rekindle their friendship.

Despite the fact that he scared her shitless, she wanted to love him as vibrantly as she did six years ago. She did not know where that urge was coming from. She figured that it had always been inside of her somewhere but inactively tucked away with her memories.

"Penny for your thoughts?" The blond-haired beauty asked with a brightening of her violet eyes. "Are you really still thinking of your escapades with Michael last night?"

Mike and his escapades had to possibly be the furthest thing from her mind at the moment.

Isabella shook her head. She thought of the first lie that she could easily tell. "Actually, I was recalling our plans for tonight."

"My place." Alice Brandon said surely. "Right after school."

"Okay." Isabella agreed with a nod because she knew that this was what she was supposed to do. The bell rang to warn the teenagers that class was about to begin, and the group of friends all scattered away in the direction of their respective classes.

Four class periods passed before Isabella was finally permitted to go to lunch. Isabella was an excellent student and school was not a hassle to her in the same way that it was to many other teenagers. She liked school because of the escape from her mother that it provided her with, but time always seemed to flit away from her during the hours she spent in class. The things she enjoyed never lasted long.

The lunch period was usually the least favorite part of Isabella's day. Although it was a necessity, she hated being around so many people at once.

Isabella Swan was the complete definition of an introvert. She was not a shy person anymore. In fact, she could hold a conversation with almost anyone but she could also very easily get overwhelmed around large groups of people.

Before the night she'd spent with Edward, she couldn't even remember a time where she'd actually been comfortable around someone.

"Are you crazy Bella?" Rosalie asked, raising her wonderfully arched eyebrows. "You're going to freeze to death if you eat lunch outside."

"I just need some fresh air." Isabella insisted. Though she really just wanted to talk to Edward.

"Do you want us to come along?" Isabella could tell that none of them really wanted to go with her and she was completely fine with that. Even if she had wanted them to go Isabella wouldn't have asked them to come if they hadn't wanted to.

She wasn't like them. She didn't expect for them to do things that they didn't want to do.

"No. Really, I'll be fine."

The group of teenagers watched their odd friend flit across the cafeteria towards the outside picnic area. Everything outside was covered in a thick layer of dirty snow.

"Now all of your friends think that you're absolutely absurd Isabella." Edward stood leaning against a giant, rotting oak tree beside a line of picnic tables. Isabella reflected silently upon the fact that he had no coat on, and he looked totally unbothered by the fact that it was well below fifty degrees. He stood there gloriously, with a pair of simple dark jeans and a crisp t-shirt as white as the snow around them had once been.

"They've always secretly believed me to be crazy." Isabella very well knew this and it did not sadden her.

"At least you're not totally ignorant." Edward said wryly. He looked at the girl with interested intent. "Doesn't it bother you? The way that they really feel about you?"

Isabella shrugged her dainty shoulders. All of her life she had been taught to value people's opinions. She cared what people thought about her enough to conform herself for acceptability. She was not interested however, in what they thought about her sanity as long as they did not ostracize her.

A callous gust of wind blew into her, sending her hair around her face in a staggering brown halo. "I like to pretend that they don't think these things."

"And for whose benefit? Surely you aren't happy being around those people."

Isabella took a second to think about her answer. Edward waited quietly and expectantly. He let his green eyes wander to the tall window which allowed him to peer into the school's cafeteria. He spotted Mike Newton and his eyes narrowed just a little. With a shake of his head he looked back at Isabella.

"It's hard to explain. It makes sense inside of my mind."

"Of course it does. Everyone's logic makes sense to them." Edward tilted his head to the side with a sigh. "What I wouldn't do to be able to read your mind. You're still so full of peculiarities." He pondered to himself.

"It pleases my mother." Isabella admitted blandly.

"But it doesn't make you happy." Edward responded in a sharp murmur. He didn't like the fact that Isabella thought her own happiness was not an aspect to be considered. "You rank your mother so high up on your list of priorities. How far down do you think you are on hers?"

"She wishes me the best. She only wants what's good for me." Isabella desperately wanted to believe this. But some where deep inside she was still utterly doubtful.

"You'd be surprised to hear what your mother's true intentions are."

"Shut up." She warned defensively. She did not want to hear the truth. The truth was the last thing that she wanted. She desperately wanted her mother to love her. She wanted it more than anything else in the world and that was all she wanted in this life. "You don't even know my mother."

It amused Edward at how quickly this naive little girl was to defend a women who'd never once put her daughter's happiness before her own. How Isabella ever trained herself to become selfless was beyond him.

Edward smiled darkly. "You aren't the one who can read minds are you?"

Isabella was quiet for a long moment as she started to wonder if maybe Edward really was the one who shared her best interest.

He'd always wanted to protect her. She started to wonder if maybe he was trying to make her understand something crucial about the people around her. Something that she could not notice on her own...or maybe something that she chose to ignore and suppress.

Isabella started to think that maybe she should start to take Edward's warnings into consideration...

It would do her more good than it could possibly harm. Well, that was what she'd wanted to believe.


	3. Warnings For Everyone

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* * *

><p><strong>-PARACOSM-<strong>

**CHAPTER 3 :**

**WARNINGS FOR EVERYONE**

The bronze-haired boy was painfully aware of his existence as an imaginary friend. He was intelligent enough to comprehend the matter of what he really was...or in other words what he wasn't.

The one called Edward Masen was actually quite pleased with himself for not being one of the unfortunate plenty of his kind that actually allowed themselves to believe they had lives of their own.

Edward understood that he was without a heart beat for a reason. He didn't need air to breathe or food to eat for nourishment. He didn't need to sleep to repair himself and he didn't need to take medicine to cure his illnesses because his body was impenetrable.

All he was needed to do was be there for one special girl, and he knew one day that even that wouldn't be a reason for him to exist. She'd already forgotten him once. The agony of waiting for that day to come again ripped him apart into tiny little pieces.

Churning shades of luminescent blue shone around him in the hue of the lovely afternoon sky. Edward sat idly in a spacious meadow filled with thousands of complementary colored flowers. Large willow trees adorned the edges of the beautiful lea, casting just enough shadow over the wonderful place to shield the boy from the rays of the gleaming sun.

The Forge of Dreams was exactly what it was called. It was a place for imaginary friends.

It was a place where they could retreat to when they were no longer needed in the real world. Edward could remember spending time in this place when he was a child, but he'd just recently been granted the favor to return.

He'd always liked the concept of this place. Every time he left The Forge of Dreams it was never quite the same as it was during his previous visit whenever he returned.

The enchanted place was always changing. The Forge of Dreams was whatever any particular person visiting the place wanted it to be.

So at the moment Edward wanted it to be a meadow filled with the beauty of nature, and off somewhere else another imaginary friend could have wanted it to be a beach...so it would be.

"Oh my." A pleasantly familiar voice said from a distance. Edward could hear the approaching thoughts of the person before he actually saw her. "What have we got here?"

Elizabeth arose from a thick fringe of trees off on the edge of the meadow. There was a bright smile on her face. The same yellow carnation that was in her hair years ago still remained and it was still vibrantly fresh.

"Elizabeth." Edward acknowledged the attractive brunette with a small smile. He watched her as she gracefully folded herself into a comfortable sitting position beside him. "How have you been old friend?"

"I've been hardly managing to pass the time without your company." Elizabeth smiled up at him endearingly. Inside of the girl's almond shaped eyes, swirling shades of brown and gold mingled endlessly until they successfully transitioned their color into a bright hazel. Everything about the young girl sparkled with delight.

Edward didn't like hearing the sadness of the girl's mind as she reviewed the time she spent missing him. He'd much rather her to have gone on as if he had never existed, which he really didn't and neither did she.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

Her mouth twisted down. "No." She murmured wryly, "You weren't the one that banished yourself to the Land of Forgotten Dreams.

_**(**"Isabella forgot about you. The despicable girl just left you behind."**)**_

Edward tried with little success to block out Elizabeth's bitter thoughts as she cursed the name of his creator over and over again.

"Elizabeth you must understand that there are aspects regarding her life that you are not well aware of. As it may be hard to believe it was not entirely her fault."

The girl with the falsely implanted attraction for the bronze-haired boy scoffed at his defense. "It's so like you to defend someone who'd forget you as soon as look at you."

"I wouldn't expect you to understand." Edward said quietly.

"Why?" The girl exclaimed, the tone of her voice rising an octave with it's increasing volume. "Why do you always say that? You've always said that but you wholly know that I can understand just as easily as you can. If only you would proceed to explain it to me."

"I have not the patience for that." His tone was dismissive. The conversation was not one he cared to continue.

The girl huffed and crossed her arms childishly. The image of her immaturity brought Edward back to pleasant memories of the past for a moment. He allowed a genuine smile to cover his face.

"I really have missed you Lizz. That place was not pleasant."

Elizabeth dropped her arms to her side. A look of intimate concern replaced the anger on her face. Edward chose to ignore the profoundly carnal feelings that Elizabeth thought she felt for him.

He was fairly positive that she didn't even understand those feelings. They weren't deep or hardly pure. They were as unreal as the both of them were. "Won't you tell me? How it felt? What it was like?"

"I wouldn't want to paint the image of a nightmare inside of your head. I can barely deal with the ruminants of that place myself." Edward was quiet then. Silently hoping that she had lost a little of her stubborn streak, hoping that she would not ignore his reluctance and continue to pry.

"Please." She insisted annoyingly and Edward sighed in defeat. He could see that his hopes were very much in vain. "If it's too much for me I promise that I'll tell you to stop. I'm just so curious to know since one day I will be destined to visit that horrid place as well."

"Very well then." Edward consented as he allowed himself to delve into the memory of his former home. The place was made for torment and anguish. "Though there is a little background story we may have to cover first."

* * *

><p><strong><em>~Flashback~<em>**

_A green-eyed boy about the age of eleven years, stood apprehensively against the wall of an all white room. _

_Two adults who were completely oblivious to his presence stood around a large medical bed that belonged to a nervously twitching brown-haired girl. _

_One of the adults was a lady with light brown hair and a facial structure practically identical to the little girl, and the other adult was a young blond-haired man with a white lab coat. The two adults were watching the girl; contemplating their next moves...and the girl was watching the green-eyed boy with worried eyes._

_The boy so wished that he could read her mind now. He'd much rather listen to her thoughts than those of the two adults around her._

_**(**"Finally. The incommodious girl will be cured. She can stop embarrassing the family with her irrational strangeness."**)** _

_The Lady Renee thought this with triumphant delight. She'd only thought about how easier her life would be if she had a normal daughter. Not once had she taken into consideration about how her daughter felt about all of this._

_**(**"Electroshock treatment is a risky maneuver for such a young girl. It's a wonder the lady would even let us do this to her daughter. I hope she is fully aware of the possible side-effects."** )**_

_The man cast Renee a very weary look, but immediately focused his attention back onto the little girl._

_"Isabella my name is Dr. Carlisle Cullen." The girl reluctantly ripped her eyes away from her friend across the room, and chanced a glance up at the frightening doctor. His voice was oddly compassionate. "I'm going to help you get your mind back to normal."_

_The little boy scowled. There was nothing wrong with the little girl's mind. "Bella don't listen to him. There is absolutely nothing abnormal about you."_

_Bella looked at the doctor with an unsure expression. While the doctor may have looked sincere Edward was the only person that she would ever trust in a situation like this. "Edward says not to listen to you."_

_"Bloody hell..." Renee cursed. She shook her head at her daughter with disapproval. "Isabella there is no one named Edward in this room with us."_

_"No Renee." The doctor said soundly. He smiled at the little girl calmly. "I'm actually curious to get an inside on Isabella's thoughts."_

_"You're not the only one doc." Edward mumbled sullenly._

_Isabella chuckled. "Edward says that he really wishes he could read my mind. I'm the only one who has ever thwarted his abilities."_

_"Oh?" Carlisle questioned with warm curiosity. The lady Renee stood indignantly with her arms crossed, extremely angry at the way the doctor was allowing her daughter to embrace her absurdity as if it were something to be especially proud about. "Edward can read minds then?"_

_Isabella nodded her head proudly. "Would you like him to attempt at reading yours?"_

_The doctor smiled. "Sure." He gave Isabella a skeptical smile as if he were just going along with her little fantasy to please her._

_Edward sighed greatly. He was actually getting quite tired of having to prove himself to the un-believing people around her. "Do I really have to do this?" He asked with a hint of a whine entering his childish voice._

_"Oh hush." Isabella said wryly. "You act if though reading minds actually takes you any effort. It is as easy to you as breathing."_

_Edward rolled his beautifully verdant eyes. _

_**("**What a peculiar little girl. Such pretty brown hair. She reminds me of Esme."**)**_

_"Esme." Edward said simply. "Your pretty brown hair reminds him of her._

_Isabella smiled. "Edward says that my brown hair makes you think of someone named Esme." _

_In a moment of astonishment Carlisle's mouth dropped. Surely there was no such thing as an imaginary friend, but then how did the girl know what he had been thinking? _

_The Lady Renee just stood to the side with a knowing expression already consuming her face. _

_"How odd." Said the man to himself quietly._

_"Yes." Renee agreed. "I just want it to stop. So shall we get on with the treatment. I'm sure you have other patients to get to Dr. Cullen." Renee Swan was really in no hurry, but she could see the indecision starting to show on the young doctor's face. She wanted this done and she wanted her daughter cured of her mental craziness today._

_Carlisle Cullen was still stricken with shock...still trying to find some logic. "Mrs. Swan maybe you should reconsider the therapy. Your daughter would be the youngest patient we've ever had. I don't know if that's such a good idea."_

_This did not please the lady at all. "Isabella has been going to a psychiatrist for at least six years now. At age eleven her doctor has finally suggested this treatment for her. If I cannot have it done here rest assured I will take my daughter and get it done elsewhere."_

_Edward narrowed his eyes in suspicion. How could a treatment that was clearly meant to cure people's insanity help a little girl that wasn't insane? What would it do to her then? Would it damage her? Would it do the exact opposite and actually make her insane?_

_Was her mother actually willing to take this risk?_

_The doctor sighed quietly. Clasping his hands together he hesitantly nodded his head. "Very well then. Let us begin. Isabella are you comfortable?"_

_The young girl nodded her head. Although, what she was feeling was very far from comfortable. She felt distressed and anxious. She was scared and in need of consoling._

_Her mother would not console her. She was nothing but a unwanted burden to the selfish lady._

_The machine beside Isabella's bed was a massive contraption. It was a muddle of confusion to Isabella's young eyes. It had so many different cords and switches. There were so many different things to be hooked up to her. Edward watched wearily as the doctor proceeded to connect the appropriate wires to the machine and to Isabella. _

_"This is to monitor your blood pressure." Carlisle explained pointing to the sphygmomanometer that he wrapped around her arm. "These are going to send the electrical currents to your brain." He placed the electronodes on either sides of Isabella's head. "This is called a bite block." He motioned for Isabella to open her mouth. "This will protect your teeth and decrease the chances of you biting your tongue during the treatment."_

_"Bella, I'm not so sure about this." Edward said cautiously. A bit of mild hysteria was detectable in his voice. He pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning against and made a veiled approach to stand beside the bed Isabella laid on. Renee Swan was completely unaware that there was indeed a little boy standing right next to her._

_Isabella focused her doe eyes onto her friend. This was the first time that she ever wished he could read her mind. She wished that she could tell him how scared she was, or how much she'd miss him if something were to go wrong._

_"Anesthesia." Carlisle placed a mask over Isabella's face. "This will put you to sleep so you that you won't be able to feel the electrical shocks."_

_After flipping a switch on the machine a wisping noise filled the air. Isabella started to inhale the gas through her mask. The effects hit her very quickly. She could almost immediately feel the drowsiness kick in. It was as if someone was sending her waves of lethargic energy._

_"Count down from five" The doctor instructed diffidently. "You'll be sleep as soon as you reach the number one."_

_Isabella looked at Edward again and her eyes widened because she'd never seen Edward look so frightened before, and she'd known him for almost six years now._

_Five..._

_They'd spent so much time together over the years. Edward couldn't fathom the thought of losing her. He was almost shaking from the fear._

_Four..._

_What was going to happen after the treatment?_

_Three..._

_Did Isabella possibly know how much the bronze-haired boy loved her?_

_Two..._

_Did the bronze-haired boy possibly know how much Isabella loved him?_

_One..._

_Isabella's eyelids drooped shut. Her chest rose in and out evenly with her sleep. The doctor looked down at the sleeping girl with a silent apology in his eyes. He then reached outward to turn the voltage knob on the machine. His finger hovered above the on switch. _

_"Are you completely sure about this?" He asked the women again. Renee looked down at her watch impatiently and gave the fickle man an indifferent wave._

_"Yeah yeah." She said with such cruel apathy. "We've already been through this haven't we?"_

_With another sigh he turned the machine on. Edward knew now that this was not a good idea...this was not a good idea at all._

_The electric currents met Isabella's small body instantaneously. Edward gasped loudly as he watched his best friend's body convulse on top of the bed uncontrollably. Renee watched her eleven year daughter with a small smile on her face. The doctor looked on with uncertainty. _

_The girl's seizure lasted but a mere sixty seconds. The treatment was not even two minutes long, but it was fortunately already completed._

_A few moments of silence passed. _

_A few moments of un-hooking things occurred within that silence that passed. _

_Isabella didn't resurface until forty-five minutes later. _

_Edward had to stand there watching his friend lay asleep for forty-five minutes. His body was still and rooted to the place where he stood. He had a dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach._

_When she finally came to consciousness her eyes opened with quick urgency. She gave the two adults in the room very apprehensive looks. She gave no regards to the little boy standing beside her._

_"What is this? Where am I?" She said with a very confused expression on her face. "Who are you?" She flinched away from the women when she reached towards the girl. _

_Renee shrank back stunned. Was this a joke? The girl didn't remember her own mother. "Isabella? Are you alright?"_

_"Who are you?" The girl asked bewildered and perplexed. She could swear that she'd never seen the two people in this room before. She had no idea of who they were._

_"Bella! Bella!" Edward kept saying her name. Desperately trying to get her to focus her attention on him. He knew that he was the only one who calm her down. "Bella! Bella please. Be..." He cut his own sentence short when he realized that she wasn't responding to him because she couldn't see him anymore. If she couldn't even remember her own mother then she surely couldn't have remembered her imaginary friend. If she couldn't remember him..._

_A bizarre feeling erupted through out Edward's body. He'd felt as if something hard had knocked into him. It pushed him so hard that he lost his balance and fell onto the floor. His meaning of existence had been eradicated. _

_Something knocked into him again...the weight of the force sent black spots soaring in front of his vision. Edward's breathing though it was not necessary for him; burned the inside of his body as he inhaled. _

_He cried out in an unexplainable pain, clenching his sides and rocking as the same invisible force knocked into him again. This time the black spots in front of him engulfed him completely._

_He was floating in an abyss of black nothingness. It was peaceful. It was the closest that he'd ever come to sleeping. _

_Though, the floating didn't last very long because soon he was falling. The speed was unwavering and rapid. The meaning of this all was incomprehensible. Where was Isabella? Where was he going? _

_His body found the ground soon. He landed face first into a field of dead grass. He was not injured. In fact, he had no sense of feeling whatsoever anymore. The confused boy looked around himself._

_Black..._

_White..._

_Black... _

_White..._

_Where was the color? _

_What was this place?_

_How did he get here?_

_How would he get out of this place?_

_"All of your questions will be answered soon little one." Edward spun himself around in a liquid like motion. He came to face an old withered women with a kind smile. Even she was painted black and white._

_"Who are you?" Edward asked. His tone brisk and his eyes hard. He had no time for pleasantries He just needed to figure out what he had to do to get back to his Isabella. _

_"I am nothing." She said simply. Her eyes raked over the darling little boy in pity. "And neither are you little one. Not anymore at least."_

_"What are you talking about? What is this God forsaken place?" Edward allowed himself to look around. There was nothing but dead grass. As far as he could see, the field with on and on. Rotted trees, wilted flowers, no color, no sky. Everything was painted with darkness. There were no animals, no birds chirping. No sunlight, no clouds, no air...there was no indication that this place was actually even inhabited at all._

_"This is the Land of Forgotten Dreams. This is the place imaginary friends are sent when they have been forgotten."_

_"Forgotten?" Edward shook his head vehemently. There was no way Isabella had actually forgotten him. "No, I couldn't have been forgotten. It's just simply not possible."_

_"Oh, but it is actually quite possible." The withered lady said with a sigh of such sadness. "I've been trapped in this place for a very long time now, and I'll probably be here for much much longer. There is nothing to do here but wait."_

_"Wait?" A cool shudder trickled down Edward's spine. He glanced around himself nervously. There was absolutely nothing here in this place. How cruel it was to be damned to a place where you could find no solace. If there were a purgatory for people of Edward's kind he would have believed that this place was it. "Wait?" He repeated to himself unbelievably._

_"There is something that may or may not make your time here more tolerable." The lady looked down at the boy sympathetically. She had never seen someone quite so young banished to this place. She only found it natural to want to comfort him._

_"What might that be?" He asked dejectedly. He stared down at the grass. Black and white._

_"You can see your creator. You can watch their lives continue without you."_

_"Sounds like more of a curse to me."_

_"Yes." The lady agreed amiably. "I used to think the same."_

_"Well, what changed your thoughts then?"_

_"Curiosity." A hint of a frown played across the lady's face. "I'd started to wonder whether or not someone could miss something that they had forgotten. I started to wonder whether she felt something absent in her life...I kept hoping that maybe she would remember me again."_

_"Hope is vain." Edward slowly looked up at the lady. The reality of what had happened to him finally dawned, he was trapped in this place until a certain little girl could remember him again. Maybe that meant that he would be here forever. There was surely no way that a person could remember someone they never knew. _

_Black..._

_White..._

_Black ..._

_White..._

* * *

><p>"It really wasn't Isabella's fault then?" A brunette girl with pretty hazel eyes said this lightly. Her whole opinion of the situation changed rather swiftly as the words of the boy's story started to sink in.<p>

Edward Masen shrugged his shoulders lazily. He wouldn't say what he believed, because, since he experienced being forgotten by Isabella and being sent to the Land of Forgotten Dreams, that would make his opinion more credible than hers. He wanted Elizabeth to believe what she wanted to believe.

"I do not blame her fully but that doesn't mean that I'm still not bitter." Edward looked around himself with a small smile on his lips. To look around and be pleased with the beauty around him was all he could do to keep himself from going completely mad. "I don't think anyone could be banished to that place and return with absolutely no hard feelings at all."

Elizabeth glanced at the boy beside her. Her eyes were weary. Her fingers were twisting and un-twisting nervously. "I don't want to go to that place Edward."

Of course she didn't. Edward could see that she was visibly upset from his story, but then he'd fairly warned her about the sorrow it could inflict hadn't he?

He could have still resisted in revealing his sad tale to her but maybe he'd wanted to instill a little bit of fear inside of her. Maybe he'd wanted to open her eyes up to the reality of what their destiny was. They weren't real and they didn't have a future. Edward wished that more of his kind could accept that.

"Surely, you don't think that your creator will remember you forever do you? Or even want to put up with you for that long?" Edward asked in a very insensitive manner.

Elizabeth scowled at the starkness of her friend. She'd waited six long years for his return, and even now the boy that she had been longing to see still hadn't come back.

Elizabeth could not blame her dear Edward for changing while he was away. She didn't hardly believe that she herself could go to a place like that and still come back completely unaltered.

That place crushed dreams and enthused bitterness.

That place made people dark.

"Couldn't it be possible that a person would want to keep their imaginary friends always?" Elizabeth was hopeful. With a doomed existence hope was the only thing that she could hang onto.

"No." Edward said bluntly. He knew that hope was vain.

"Couldn't they still remember us even if they didn't want us?"

"What good what that do?"

Elizabeth sighed quietly. So was there absolutely no way that she could prevent herself from going to that dreadful place?

"Why were we given such a cruel existence?" The girl pondered angrily. Such an unlucky hand they had been dealt. Why couldn't they have been given a happier ending?

Edward leaned back with thought. Over the time he'd spent in the Land of Forgotten Dreams he had often wondered the exact same thing.

With a simple fluid shrug of his shoulders Edward dismissed the hazel-eyed girl's question as unanswerable. "I have not the answers to everything Elizabeth."

**~~~~PARACOSM**

In a large house not too far from the public high school, a group of teenagers sat in an unsupervised living room with drinks and snacks to keep them occupied.

The girl named Isabella sat snuggled into the side of a blue-eyed boy whose arms didn't feel nearly as comforting as those belonging to her imaginary friend Edward.

Isabella so wished that she could make a hasty retreat back to the confines of her own house. She'd been there with her friends going on two hours now, and the only thing the group of friends had achieved in that time was making her feel even more incapable of making her own decisions...making her feel even more trapped in a world where she was not the dictator of her own life.

The group had already discussed their plans of attending the school's annual formal winter dance. It had already been decided that Isabella was to wear a dark blue dress, her hair would be up in tight ringlet curls, and her accompanying escort would be her boyfriend Mike Newton. These would be perceived to be minimal things but in Isabella's mind they were anything but.

Her mother already made all of her important decisions for her. That was something that she never expected to see the end of. She learned to accept that her mother knew best. She would have liked the ability to choose something as simple as what she should wear to a dance though, and sadly she did not even get that.

"Are you well Isabella?" Jessica Stanley asked with a worried expression on her face. Isabella had strong doubts that the girl actually had any concerns about how she was feeling, but her voice was craftily earnest none the less.

Isabella was well. In fact, she felt completely healthy but she could see that this might be the only chance for her to articulate herself an excuse to go home though.

"Actually, I'm not feeling too good." She tried to make her voice sincere. If Jessica could fabricate a falsely authentic voice then so could she.

"What's wrong with you?" Alice asked. "We may have something that you can take."

Isabella shook her head. She was never a great liar. "Um...no thanks...I've just been um...feeling a little nauseated lately. I think it may be from the rancid chicken my mother prepared a few nights ago."

"Oh?" Alice raised her perfectly arched eyebrows.

Isabella nodded her head. "Maybe I should just head home and sleep it off."

"Sure." Alice smiled at the girl regrettably. "I hope you feel better. Call me later if you can."

Isabella said goodbye to all of her friends. She gave her boyfriend a good night kiss and told him that she loved him.

The walk to her car was a nice one. The air was cool and violent, but it smelled fresh and warm. Isabella could vaguely see the shadow of a boy sitting in her passenger's seat as she approached.

"Would you like to know what they are thinking now?" His eyes were focused, completely intent on her as she entered the car on the driver's side. His tone was a bit flat with boredom however.

"Not really." She said, with her attractive face showing just as much emotion as his tone held.

"I shall humor you anyway." Isabella did not fail to detect the scornful undertone in the note of his voice. Did he want to hurt her feelings with the unkind knowledge that she knew he was aware of or did he have an entirely different motive? "Alice's mind is completely void of you as a subject at the moment. She is thinking about shopping."

"Of course." Isabella said, turning the key in the ignition.

"Rosalie has caught sight of her profile in the reflection of the black television screen. She is currently in fascination with her outrageous beauty."

"Sounds like Rosalie."

"Jessica Stanley." Edward paused with a malicious smile on his otherwise wicked face. "She's thinking about how glad she is that you are gone. She can finally try to make another move on Mike."

"And Mike?" Isabella asked quietly. "What subject is his mind resident in?"

"He's thinking about desires of the flesh. He's also glad that you left early because he's planning on giving Jessica a lift home and he's hoping that she's going to invite him inside."

Isabella's intake of air was sudden and sharp. She looked back at the house with contempt and then back at Edward.

It wasn't as if she weren't already aware of her boyfriend's dishonesty, but while she'd much rather live with it and ignore it Edward wanted to throw it in her face. Isabella frowned at the pleased smile on his face. "I don't know why you like being such and unpleasant boy. That's not very nice of you."

"What if I had been nice?"His eye brows lifted and so did the corners of his lips. "Would you have accepted my words more nicely then?"

Isabella ignored the boy, putting the car into drive. She pressed onto the gas and took off down the street.

"I wouldn't have counted you for a ostentatious type of girl." Edward said this referring to the expensive car that they were seated in. "I would have expected you to have a rusty old truck or something more natural...something more like the old Bella."

"My mother chose this car for me." She stated simply. It was a present. How could she be choosy over something like a car? She was grateful that her mother had even blessed her with such a thoughtful gift.

"What else has she chosen for you? Are you even aware of all of the things she's ever chosen for you?"

Isabella kept her eyes on the road ahead. Though she was desperately tempted to chance a look at the boy beside her. His voice had went from bland to suddenly full of emotion.

Was he trying to tell her something without blatantly saying it?

Isabella hated how confused he seemed to always make her.

"She only wants the best for me."

"Is that what you're going to say every time I bring up the fact that she controls your entire life?"

"What else do you want me to say?" The girl asked defensively. The volume of her voice steadily increasing.

"Something! Anything else but that! Don't you know that she's brainwashed you into believing that so that even you won't question why she decides everything for you?"

"Shut up Edward." She said this quietly, but her voice was also as unkind as his had been before.

He ignored the girl easily. He'd seen far more intimidating things.

"I shall give you a fair warning Isabella." He flashed her a very threatening, very serious look. "If you don't start doing something about the iniquitousness in your life...I will."

They both were silent for a couple of seconds.

They both looked at each other. They're expressions weren't glares but they weren't pleasant ones either.

Edward was the one who chose to demolish the silence. His voice was eerie with possibility and purpose. "And I don't think you'd very much like my methods of solution Isabella."


	4. A Problem Easily Fixed

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* * *

><p><strong>-PARACOSM-<strong>

**CHAPTER 4 :**

**A PROBLEM EASILY FIXED**

The girl pretended to brush Edward's cold threats aside, right out of the confines of her silent mind.

She tried to believe that he was bluffing about taking matters into his own hands, but somewhere deep inside of her being she knew that he'd very well meant what he'd said or else he wouldn't have said it at all.

Edward did not play games, he never did anything without a sound reason, and he never uttered a phrase without a purpose.

Fifteen long minutes later, the two friends were pulling up in front of the brown-haired girl's house. There was only one other car parked in her driveway. When Isabella noticed it was Phil's car she'd immediately regretted her hasty decision to come home so early. She never did feel completely comfortable around Phil. It was only natural that she hated to be around him when her mother's presence was absent.

"Is that apprehension I detect?" Edward asked, though he gave her a knowing look which insisted that there was no reason for her to waste her breath answering his question. "If I were you I would be afraid of that bastard too. You should be glad that you do not remember everything from your childhood."

Edward walked ahead of her towards the house. Isabella stopped behind him in shock. What in the devil was he trying to insinuate by that?

"Why did you stop walking?" Edward didn't have to cease his walk or even turn around to notice that Isabella was still standing in the same spot that she had been in several moments earlier.

"Was that some kind of sick joke?" Isabella hissed quietly. She could feel her heart thumping erratically inside of her chest. Her face was flushed with heat and her eyes were narrowed.

When Edward turned back around to face her, the expression on his face almost mirrored her own. His green eyes were also narrowed but much more intimidating. His voice was soft when he spoke again, but there was also a dangerous edge lacing the contours of his words. "I don't joke very often Isabella."

"So, what are you saying then?" Isabella glanced at her friend expectantly. "Why don't you stop being so damn vague all of the fucking time Edward?"

"I can't answer all of your questions Isabella." He looked at her with a softening expression. He could empathize with his friend, he could imagine how frustrated she must be to not have remembered anything. At the same time he envied her. He wished every so often that he could be blessed with such a gift. To not remember would be awfully pleasant for him.

"You can't answer all of my questions or you won't answer them?" With her hands on her hips, Edward observed that she'd never quite lost that stubborn streak of hers he'd adored so much.

A small smirk twitched upon the corners of Edward's mouth. In the moonlight, Isabella took a great notice that he looked even more hauntingly beautiful. His eyes shone with radiant vibrancy. "It's simple Isabella. I am not incapable of revealing the answers to you but I refuse to just throw them to you so easily. That is not how this life works, my love. If you want to know the truth you have to figure it out yourself."

"I thought perhaps you might help me." Isabella knew that Edward had a head full of knowledge and insight. He was even aware of certain things that no one else on this earth could possibly know. If he cared about her as much as he claimed, it would be only logical for him to help her out.

Edward smiled lightly and turned back towards Isabella's extravagant house. "But I am helping you dear Isabella. Don't you see? I have already given you plenty of things to think over haven't I?"

Isabella nodded her head silently, as she followed Edward onto the front porch. The two friends walked into the house quietly enough to hear the soft snoring that was coming from Phillip Dwyer as he laid passed out on the sofa. Edward and Isabella strolled past him into the kitchen.

"I'm going to warm up the left overs from last night." Isabella said calmly. She watched her friend get into a comfortable sitting position on top of her mother's perfectly spotless counter. He looked at her patiently, but did not utter a word.

He watched Isabella move things around inside of the refrigerator until she found the aluminum pan of lasagna from yesterday. After she'd fixed herself a considerably small bowl and placed it in the microwave for warming, she turned back to Edward.

"That doesn't smell very appetizing." He said wryly. The faint aroma of tomato drenched meat filled the air. He didn't know much about human food, but he knew enough to tell that the food in Isabella's microwave was not supposed to smell like that.

"Renee isn't a very good cook." Isabella explained dryly. It was true. Renee Dwyer had never been exceptionally skilled in the art of cooking, but the brown-haired girl would not complain. At least her mother cared enough to attempt in preparing a meal for her family. Isabella was grateful nonetheless.

"What is it that the Lady Renee actually does do well?" Edward asked with mock curiosity. Isabella rolled her eyes heavenward at the obvious scorn in his voice.

She was well aware of the fact that Edward disliked her mother greatly. In fact, he seemed to dislike everyone in her life. She would not waste her time getting defensive with her precious friend since it would only prove to encourage him to challenge her onward.

"She is a great lawyer."

"Of course she is." Edward chuckled softly. Isabella could not detect the source from which he'd pulled his humor from. Though, she was quite positive that she didn't actually want to know what it was that he was finding amusing. "She has everything it takes to be an impressive lawyer. She is a world-class liar and the greatest of manipulators I've ever seen."

"Shut up."

"It's actually quite ironic that you can't lie to save your life Isabella. I would have thought her qualities would have rubbed off on you by now."

"Shut up!" Isabella's volume exploded with her irritation. Edward was such an unpleasant boy at times. She absolutely hated that he knew exactly how to get under her skin.

"Tsk Tsk." Edward shook his head at her. His green eyes were dark and hard with a threat that chilled her to the bones. "You've just woken up dear Phillip."

"Bella?" Her heart dropped onto the floor when she heard Phil calling from within the living room. Edward and her mother were not the only two people that she allowed herself to be afraid of. Phil was also able to instill a bought of fear within the girl, but for a very different reason than the other two. "Who are you talking to?"

"Oh." Isabella said quickly, hoping that he was tired enough to fall right back to sleep. "I was uh...I was just talking to myself while I waited for my food to heat up."

"I've heard that talking to yourself is not entirely healthy." Edward said quite sardonically, from where he sat swinging his legs idly. A small smile managed to cover his face. Isabella's irritation with him was steadily growing.

"And talking to someone who isn't real is any better? I might as well be talking to myself. In a sense, you aren't even really there." Isabella hissed this very callously under her breath, but she was extremely positive that despite the volume of her voice Edward could still easily hear her. He'd always had some sorts of enhanced senses.

Edward said nothing in return. He looked at her balefully, and the girl immediately felt bad for the harsh words she'd allowed her voice to utter. She had been way too quick with her heated response to consider her friend's feelings, but then again it wasn't as if he was always decently sweet with his deliberate choice of words either.

"I'm sorry." Isabella finally whispered lowly. Her voice was a remorseful layer of sheer quietness. "Maybe you should just go for right now."

There wasn't much of a change inside of his emerald eyes. They were still fiercely set on Isabella's big brown ones, but she was sure that she saw a little disappointment flash across his face somewhere.

"Very well then." His voice was a monotone. He did not fool her with his act of indifference. She could detect pain inside of every part of him. It broke her in half to see it with her eyes. "I'll leave you to dine in silence dear Isabella. Don't forget to think of me."

"I won't." She promised softly and she meant it.

She could hear Phil's footsteps getting closer to the entry of the kitchen now. She didn't stop herself from feeling fear. It was an automatic response whenever he was around.

"Bella?" She turned to see Phil standing in the doorway. Her head turned back to check if Edward was still there and sure enough he had vanished into the thin air. There was no sign that he'd ever been there in the first place. "What are you doing?" Phil asked curiously. His diluted brown eyes were red and puffy. She couldn't tell if his unsightly appearance was due from him waking up from a restless sleep, or consuming too much of the foul-smelling drink that he loved so much.

"Hi Phil." Isabella gave him a polite smile. She could only wonder if he knew just how frightened that she was of him. "How was your day?" The microwave beeped it's finish and Isabella walked over to it to retrieve her food from inside of it.

She wasn't quite as hungry as she had been before though. Now she wished that she could just forget about the food and retreat to the safety of her room upstairs. She was never comfortable around Phil for a reason.

While her back was still turned, her step-father sauntered up behind her and wrapped his arm around her waist. Isabella turned quickly to face him, her eyes wide with apprehension.

He liked this look of apprehension on her. It made him feel in control. The brown-haired girl was just too tempting for her own good. She was the pure attractiveness of her mother, but more youthful and vibrant in a way. He never could keep his desires for her hidden. Not even when she was nothing but a little girl.

"Phil!" She gasped loudly, willing herself to seem assertive for once. "Please let me go." There wasn't anything more frightening to Isabella than the times when her step-father opted to touch her like her body belonged to him.

She would never tell her mother of Phil's actions but that was because Isabella was sure that her mother already knew of them somehow.

"Shh...little girl." He chided softly. He held both of her small hands inside one of his large ones. His body pressed hers painfully against the edge of the counter. "I only want to love you Bella. I just want to show you how much I love you."

"I know." Isabella assured with a frantic head nod. "Please...please...I already know how much you love me."

"Feel this?" He asked huskily, his hot rancid breath soaking her ears as he thrusted himself against her. Isabella felt the firmness in his pants and her fear sky rocketed. "That's all for you...pretty little princess."

"Phil please..." Isabella could see that her step father was irrational. His mind and actions were being determined by the alcohol in his system. "Stop this."

"Don't you want to feel me?" He unbuttoned her pants with one hand. The other still holding hers hostage. This was what he loved the most about Isabella. She was so easy to overpower. She was so quick to please. "I'll take care of you good. You're my little princess."

Her youthfulness...

Her vibrancy...

Her warmth...

* * *

><p><strong><em>~Flashback~<em>**

_There was a time when Isabella thought that Phillip Dwyer was the best new daddy she could ever ask for. When her mother first took interest in the unfamiliar man, Isabella had been very skeptical though. _

_She was of only the age eight anyway and she'd only ever had one father in her life before. Even though he wasn't with her anymore, she would never fathom the thought of replacing him for someone else._

_Isabella did not welcome Phil into her life cordially. In fact, she spent most of her days confined inside of her room because her mother called her behavior towards Phillip absurdly rude and un-lady like._

_"Your mother really likes him Bella." Said such a beautiful voice, It reminded her of the instruments in a symphony because it sounded so musical. _

_Isabella sighed as she sifted her small fingers through her friend's hair. She sat up in her bed with her legs outstretched, while her bronze-haired friend rested his head soundly inside of her lap. _

_She looked down at his handsome face. "You should know by now how fickle my mother is Edward. Should Phil ever show her a glimpse of his true self, the relationship that they have would be over before it had a chance to begin."_

_"I wouldn't be so sure." Edward's lifting green eyes met hers. "From what I understand he has money. Your mother would not turn down such a chance of an extravagant life Isabella."_

_"Yes." Isabella sighed again. "I wish I did not believe this so easily."_

_"Don't you ever wonder that perhaps you are not the that has the mental disorder but that it is your mother, or that she tries to make you seem insane so people won't focus on how corrupt she really is?"_

_"Perhaps it is actually a bit of both." The girl said, and she believed this wholly. She'd also started to believe that maybe she was going to be stuck with Phil in her life for a while now._

_She was correct about her assumption. It was no later than a few months after the conversation she'd had with Edward when Phillip Dwyer was officially her new daddy. _

_Her icy feelings towards him started to waver however, once she'd gotten to know him. Phillip always had sort of a playful nature to him. When he would volunteer to take Isabella places and buy her toys it was always wildly appreciated by the little girl._

_"Don't you think that perhaps Phil is becoming a little bit too friendly?" Edward asked quietly, as he and Isabella trudged idly through the fringe of woods behind her house._

_"Whatever do you mean?" Isabella had given no second thought on the motives behind Phil's gestures. Edward always worried a little bit too much._

_"I mean, why does he put forth so much effort for you to like him?"_

_"Do you know something I don't know?" Isabella knew that Edward could read minds, and she knew that if he knew something that had the potential to frighten her he would rather keep it to himself. Isabella looked at her friend expectantly._

_Edward glanced down at his hands and shook his head. "I've been trying to detect something in his mind, but it seems like he's undecided right now. He doesn't directly think what he wants to do but I have a feeling it's something bad."_

_"Oh Edward." Isabella rolled her eyes at him with a slight smile. "I love you."_

_"I know." He smiled at her sadly, "I love you too. So just do me a favor and be careful around him."_

_Isabella nodded her head and bounced forward to capture the corner of Edward's mouth with her lips. "I promise I will be careful."_

_Isabella was never good at honoring her promises. Whether it was intentional or not. She never seemed to be able to keep them._

_There was one night when she hadn't called Edward to stay the night with her. It was the same night when her mother had to stay at work a little later than usual, and the only person at home to tuck her into bed was Phillip. He'd seemed innocent enough when he'd crawled into her bed to read her a bedtime story._

_"I'm still not tired Phil." Isabella said, once they'd finished reading through her favorite story time book for the third time._

_"Hmm." Phil seemed to contemplate this seriously, though the things that he wanted to do with his step-daughter had been on his mind since he'd first woken in the morning. "Would you not like to play a game then? Just one more before you really have to go to bed?"_

_Isabella's innocent brown eyes widened with excitement. She nodded her head vehemently. There was something undeniably thrilling about breaking her mother's rules. "What would you want to play? Dress up or hide and seek...Ooh! what about tea party?"_

_Phil chuckled at the little girl's enthusiasm but still he shook his head lightly. "We should play a new game. It's like when we play with your barbie dolls but instead you would be my doll."_

_Isabella's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. She had never heard of this game before. "I would be your doll?"_

_Phil nodded his head slowly, the expression on his face completely earnest and warm. He was using the trust that he gained from the little girl directly against her and he had absolutely no qualms about doing it."I would undress you and dress you up in your prettiest dress so that you can look like a baby doll."_

_Isabella found nothing suspicious in this. She dressed up with Edward all of the time, but she would always make sure Edward didn't look at her while she changed._

_"Do you want to play Bella or not?"_

_Isabella nodded her head quickly. She loved new games. The Lady Renee never let her stay up past bedtime even if she wasn't sleepy. Phil was the best new daddy that she could ever ask for._

_"Okay then, but we can't tell your mommy about this. She would be so upset if she knew I let you stay up late. If she finds out we won't ever be able to play games together again. Do you promise you won't tell?"_

_Isabella nodded her head again, and Phil took a moment to admire the brown-haired child. She was such a beauty to his eyes. He'd only wished that she was older, but then again he was grateful because he knew that she wouldn't be able to fully understand what was happening._

_"Well, let's start getting those pj's off of you. You have to lay still like a doll would." Phil watched the girl lay comfortably in the middle of the bed. A small smile on her face. He reached for the waistband on her pretty little pajama pants and she allowed him to pull them down her legs. _

_She had little pink panties on. Phil allowed all of the sexual thoughts he'd repressed for the last few months to flood his conscious mind. He absently licked his lips as he reached for her underwear. A small hand covered his own before he could finish his maneuver. Phil looked into the wide eyes of Isabella. Her smile was gone._

_"Why are you taking these off?" She wondered apprehensively. Phil was quick with his excuse. He flashed the little girl an easy smile._

_"I want to dress you up in your white dress. It would be rather unsightly if your pink panties were visible through the white fabric Bella don't you think?"_

_"Oh." Isabella nodded her little brown head again. "Okay, but I have to put my dress on quickly. My mother says that my lower body is private and only for me to see."_

_A wide grin spread across Phil's face as he agreed. He got Isabella's underwear off easily enough. He then proceeded to unzip his own pants. _

_"Why are you undressing too?"_

_"I have to dress up too." He smiled at her endearingly as he kicked his pants and boxers to the floor. "Close your eyes...You have to act like you're a sleeping dolly."_

_The girl surrendered to his wishes all too easily. She'd put her trust in him that he would never do anything to hurt her. She'd accepted him as her new father. She'd accepted him as the man that would protect her from any and everything._

_She shut her brown eyes as he took himself into his hands and guided himself towards her._

_"Pretty little girl.." He whispered to her quietly. "You're my little princess."_

_A naive, innocent little girl._

_With virtue lost, and __Hurt, and __Insanity..._

_It all had to start somewhere._

* * *

><p>Of course Isabella could not remember that far back. She had no idea that the first time he'd sexually touched her was when she was eight years old.<p>

The earliest time that she could remember him touching her in a cross way was after she'd already given herself to Mike and that was not until she was fifteen.

Phil used her just like Mike did...

It was always quick and meaningless...

After gathering up her clothes, with a quiet sob the soiled teenage girl walked up the stairs to her room. She left her bowl of untouched lasagna on the counter. It was too cool to eat now anyway and it would not taste the same if she were to warm it up a second time.

Once she was up the stairs, she locked herself inside of the bathroom and bawled deeply into the palms of her hands.

Phil's penetrations were less frequent than they used to be but they were all the same traumatizing. The girl felt trapped within her own skin with the secrets that she could not tell anyone.

She was frightened and afraid and severely over-whelmed.

She cried when she was in the shower scrubbing his rancid scent off of her skin, she cried when she finally dressed herself again, she cried while covering the bruises that he left her with from his rough grasping, and she even cried when she laid down for bed.

"Edward?" She whispered through her gasping sobs, the girl squinted her eyes in the darkness. She couldn't go to sleep now. Not even if she wanted to. She needed comfort and there was only one person who could possibly provide that for her at the moment. "Edward, I need you."

There was no person that she needed more. Edward was the only person that she would ever need so desperately.

"Are you going to tell your mother?" Isabella gasped, she was startled by the sudden entrance of the voice. Edward was sitting at the end of her bed with a furious frown on his face.

She could only infer that he knew what had happened between her and Phil...but how?

"What?" She commanded quietly. She looked at her friend as best she could in the darkness. To her eyes he was nothing more than an attractive ghost of a shadow.

Edward could see her very clearly though. She was puffy eyed and startled by his presence. He felt sick from knowing that she felt fear in him like she did with Phillip. He would never hurt her.

But he would hurt for her...

He felt the need for vengeance coursing throughout him.

"Are you going to fucking tell her Isabella? That her husband has been fucking you for years now!"

Isabella flinched at the volume of his voice. Though his face was still furious, she thought she might have seen something there that showed his realization that he'd gone too far. Even so, he offered her no apology whatsoever.

He leaned towards her and gently grasped her face. She could see his eyes perfectly now. They were narrowed but still incredibly soft for her. "Isabella are you going to tell your mother about what happened tonight? I hadn't known that it was still going on this way."

"Still?" Isabella questioned dubiously, alarmed defenses rose from within her. She could almost hear herself falling to pieces. The thought of not remembering a time when her step-father had misused her was terrifying. "It started when I was fifteen but of course you couldn't have known that."

Edward shook his head wordlessly. The expression on his face pained and patient.

"Do you know something that I don't know Edward?"

"It didn't start when you were fifteen Isabella." Edward leveled his gaze at her. He wanted to only say this one time. Isabella was a smart girl. He knew that she could comprehend this with ease.

"What?" She choked in a whisper. He could not be serious. Isabella felt sick to her stomach. "If not fifteen, what age did it start? When did he start robbing me of my virtue then?"

Edward shook his head again. He was wordless.

He would not tell her all of the answers to her questions. Isabella was quick to realize this.

"How did you even know Edward?"

"If not for his unlawfully satisfied thoughts." Edward seethed, his body visibly stiffening with his anger. Even when she was the one who needed consoling Isabella still longed to reach out to soothe him somehow. Edward moved forward and grabbed her hair gently. "I can still smell him on you. His scent and strawberry soap."

Edward sneered in disgust. "It's utterly repulsive."

Isabella could not smell anything. She was sure that she had washed herself more than thoroughly. Her skin still felt raw from the frantic scrubbing frenzy that she'd gone through.

"You wouldn't be able to smell it. No human can smell it." He explained evenly. His eyes narrowed onto hers. "You still haven't answered my question. So I can only infer that you know your response is going to piss me off. Please tell me that you're going to tell your mother Bella."

"I'm not telling her." Isabella said firmly. She would hold her ground against this no matter how outrageous Edward's temper got. She had her reasons.

"Like hell you are!" Edward scoffed at his friend, almost as if he were disgusted by her. "You're not going to sit around and wait for him to want you again are you? Don't you understand that this is wrong Isabella?"

"Yes." She nodded her head. "I do not want my mother to be upset with me though. She would think that I am lying. She would think that I am insane!"

"Don't you see what has happened to you Isabella? You started off as a perfectly rational human being and over the years your mother has managed to actually make you go insane. What normal person would keep something so morbid to themselves? Especially if they know that they can get help."

"Am I insane?" She pondered wryly. People who were insane rarely questioned if they were insane or not. Isabella had never once thought something was mentally wrong with her until she'd realized that her imaginary friend was real and until now.

"I wasn't lying when I said I would do something about the iniquitousness in your life Isabella." Edward's voice had a tendency to lower in volume when he was delivering a threat. Even though Isabella was getting used to this, it did absolutely nothing to calm her fear of him. "So tell me now...are you going to tell your mom what happened tonight or not?"

Isabella shook her head wordlessly. She did not want to challenge Edward at this because she was sure that he'd win, but she could not tell her mother. The Lady Renee would probably disown her as soon as listen to her story. Isabella wanted to stay in her mother's good graces.

"Then someone will have to get hurt." Edward threatened quietly.

"I would beg you not to do anything drastic but..."

"But then you'd be wasting your precious breath Isabella." Edward snapped, cutting her sentence short. "Maybe you should just go to sleep now. You must be ridiculously fatigued."

"I'm still not tired Edward. Could you lay with me?"

"I can make you fall asleep easily." Edward moved up to the side of the bed that the girl left uninhabited. She smiled at him and rested her head on his cold chest.

"How will you make me fall asleep?" She wondered curiously.

"Listen to my voice." He instructed softly. He started to hum a familiar melody. Isabella couldn't quite piece together where she'd heard it before but she knew that it was indeed familiar. "Close your eyes."

Edward felt his mood darkening. Despite the beautiful girl that was laying in his arms, he could only focus his mind on one particular thing. "May you dream in peace and may your dreams be mild."

Someone was going to get hurt...

Isabella closed her eyes. Edward continued to hum her to sleep and no less than five minutes later the brown-haired girl was completely comatose.

She didn't stay asleep long...

It was probably only a few hours later when the girl's sleep was interrupted with a need to use the bathroom.

"Isabella? Why have you waken?"

The girl rubbed her eyes and looked at Edward sleepily. She was pleased that he'd stayed with her while she was sleeping. She felt safe and secure whenever he was around. As long as he was near, she somehow knew that nothing would be able to bring her harm.

She believed in Edward whole-heartedly. It was his methods that she didn't entirely approve of.

"I need a human moment."

Edward chuckled. He released her from out of his embrace, trying not to be disappointed by the loss of her softness. "I understand."

Isabella raised herself rather ungracefully and scurried out of her room to the bathroom. She ironically passed Phil as he was just leaving from out of the bathroom. He smiled at her groggily and her skin began to itch all over again.

Isabella cringed as she locked herself inside of the bathroom. The unpleasant events of the night came rushing back at her like a ton of concrete bricks. She wanted to breakdown and cry all over again but she didn't want to leave Edward waiting inside of her room for too long. She hurried to get her business done so that she could get back to him.

Edward was sitting in the room and he was glad that his dear Isabella had chosen this time to excuse herself to the bathroom. He could hear the vile and repulsive things that Phil was thinking about her when he passed Isabella in the hallway.

Edward's agonizing love for that girl was what drove him to creep out of Isabella's rickety old bed. He slithered to her bedroom door. His timing was perfect as he pushed it open.

Phillip Dwyer stopped his trot to the stairs. He'd been drinking a lot tonight and he was a bit disoriented, but he knew that he hadn't just imagined that bedroom door opening by itself.

He didn't imagine the temperature around him instantly dropping either. A chill splintered down his spine as paranoia took over him.

There was someone there with him. He could just feel it.

"You sick bastard." Edward spat quietly. The man could not see him or hear him but he could definitely feel him. Edward felt comfort in that. It would make killing him so much easier. It would make the terror that Phil would feel so much greater. He deserved the worst of what Edward could parcel out. "You want to hurt her? When she is my only reason to exist? When she is the only thing that gives me breath?"

Phil snapped his head around to glance behind him. There was no one there that he could see.

"She is all that I've ever known to love." Edward hated that his voice had lost it's coldness. He felt vulnerable admitting this. "I cannot stand to see her unhappy. When she is hurt I am hurt a thousand times more. Nothing will ever harm her as long as I am around."

Phil started walking again. His steps were hurried and undeniably sloppy. The foul-smelling drink had done it's job. He was drunk and unstable.

"You tainted her." Edward accused roughly. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides as he followed the man with purpose. They were nearing the top of the stairs now. "You sprayed your filthy scent all over her. You fucking claimed her like she's yours or something."

He could hear Isabella finishing up in the bathroom now. He had to make this quick.

His decision was made.

The man named Phillip Dwyer would not die on this day. Edward was much too creative to kill him so suddenly.

"She isn't yours." Edward had impossibly blinding speed. He'd made it to the top of the first step right before Phil had. He was already in a sitting position. He was already waiting. Just because he hadn't written Phil a death sentence on this night, did not mean that he wasn't going to make the bastard suffer. "She doesn't belong to you. She isn't yours. Isabella is my love. She belongs to me."

Nobody was going to hurt his darling Isabella and get away with it...

Shortly after flushing the toilet and washing her hands, Isabella heard a deafening crashing sound, a loud crying yelp, and a familiar dark chuckling following afterwards.

Isabella's eyes widened with fear. The first thing that came to her mind was Edward and his promising threats.

She flung open the bathroom door much too quickly and with too much force. She could not push herself to move any quicker as she rushed into the hallway to determine what the cause of the ruckus had been. The spiraling double staircase that led to the main floor was located right at the beginning of the hall. From where she was standing she could already see Edward sitting at the top of the stairs with a very sinister smile on his satisfied face.

Swallowing her fear, Isabella forced herself to walk slowly to where her nefarious friend sat. She tentatively peered down the stairs where a bleeding Phil laid un-moving at the bottom. He was sprawled out at an unnatural angle. The wooden floor was splintered from the landing of his impact.

She gasped loudly. Her jaw just about hit the floor. She looked at her friend in horror. She hadn't thought that he was capable of such violence. She'd counted on his threats to be empty. She knew he was dangerous but she didn't think that he'd actually do something like this. "E..Edward...w..what the hell did you...do?"

He let out another dark chuckle before smiling. "Isn't it obvious? I took care of your problem Isabella. It was easy."

"W..what?" Isabella shook her head. An avalanche of startling chills burst throughout her at once. The blood inside of her body went extremely cold. "I told you not to."

Edward looked up at her with his startling green eyes, under his fringe of thick eyelashes. Isabella cursed his beauty because even when she was horrified with him...she was still undeniably entranced as well. "And I told you dear Isabella...that I always keep my promises."

* * *

><p><strong>Author note : <strong>

**This story is extremely fictional.**

**We do not condone rape or violence in any way.**

**We have a question for the readers : What are your opinions on the characters so far?**

**Do you think Edwards intentions are good?**

**Do you think Bella is insane?**

**Anyway thanks for reading :)**

**Read and review !**


	5. Closer Than Before

**Disclaimer: We do not own Twilight or any of the characters**

**We didn't plan on starting this story, but we really want to get it out there.**

**Give it a chance**

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**This story maybe confusing, but everything will get explained more thoroughly as the chapters go on.**

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**This story will be updated every two days. **

**Expect Chapter 6 on Thursday :)**

* * *

><p><strong>-PARACOSM-<strong>

**CHAPTER 5 :**

**CLOSER THAN BEFORE**

In The Forge of Dreams a bronze-haired boy sat silently under the shaded fringe of woeful willow trees. Silence was the only thing that this attractive boy truly found welcoming. He was finally able to enjoy just a little bit of peace inside of his own mind after years of being forced to listen to the depressing thoughts of the other forgotten imaginary friends that he'd encountered while he was in The Land of Forgotten Dreams.

"Edward?" A hazel-eyed beauty said, sitting beside her friend. This was his meadow. This was where she knew she would always find him waiting for his dear Isabella to need him again. "Have you been up to no good?"

"Why would you assume such a thing Elizabeth?" Edward smiled lightly, and the girl had to take a quick moment to appreciate him. Since he'd been back she noticed that he didn't find something worth smiling over very often. He was an exquisite sight to see. She simply adored this boy. "I've been nothing but an angel."

"Oh Edward." Elizabeth rolled her pleasant, hazel-eyes heavenward. The sky was a startling blue above them, and loitered with tons of fluffy white clouds. This place was of pure perfection. "Now I know that you are being dishonest. You have never been an angel, and I am fairly confident that you never will be. I'm afraid that you are just too devious of a boy to be classified an angel."

Edward flashed his friend a small grin. "Your confidence in me is truly astonishing."

"Oh I am confident." Elizabeth declared playfully. "I am confident that you will tell me what happened while you were last away. You've been sitting in this place for two days now Edward. Usually you are always away with Isabella. She must be pretty upset with you huh?"

"Her step-father Phil got hurt." Edward smiled to himself in satisfaction. He could remember the events of that night quite perfectly. The memory replaying inside of his mind like a little movie.

The hazel-eyed girl still felt the need to be ignorantly curious even though she was fairly positive that she already knew the answer to the question she was about to ask. "Did you hurt him Edward?"

With a small sigh Edward looked at his friend. She was utterly and wholly beautiful.

Her hair was long, waving, and the color of fine sand. Her hazel eyes were almond shaped and under a fringe of thick eyelashes. And her facial features were so intentionally symmetrical that it would only make sense that she had been sculpted that way. It was a shame that such beauty could only exist in a place that didn't actually exist.

"He took a great fall."

"Did you push him?" Years ago Elizabeth would have never believed that her friend was capable of doing someone else harm. His heart was simply too pure to want to inflict pain on someone else. He would have never hurt a fly, but then again...it had always been blatantly clear to her that he would go to the most drastic of extremes to protect Isabella. When it came to his deareast creator, Elizabeth had no doubts that he would probably even kill someone had they done her wrong.

Edward shook his head silently.

"Is he dead now then?" Elizabeth could tell that Edward's silence meant that he was growing weary of her excessive questioning. If he got irritated enough with the conversation she knew that he would shut down on her completely, but she couldn't contain her inquisitiveness for even a second when it came to him. He was the single most interesting thing that she'd ever encountered.

Edward shook his head again. His silence was starting to disturb the beautiful imaginary girl just a bit now. Edward was just generally a dark person to her eyes, and when he was silent the ominousness about him created a hideous aura of danger around his very being.

Elizabeth knew that Edward would never hurt her, but that still didn't stop her from being a little bit apprehensive of him.

"Then where is he at?" She asked quietly.

"I suppose that he is in the hospital recovering. He may not be dead, but his body will be pretty much useless to him now and for the rest of his dismal existence." Edward smiled at the thought.

Isabella would learn to appreciate his actions sooner or later. She just had to realize that he'd done it for her. He was the only one in her life that actually wanted the best for her.

"And Isabella is so upset with you because of that?" Elizabeth could only infer that there must have been a very distinct reason why Edward had decided to hurt this man. Elizabeth knew with certainty that Edward never did things without a reason. He was the most deliberate and calculated person that she'd ever known.

"Yes." Edward sighed quietly. "But she will need me again soon, and she knows that when she does need me I will be there for her no matter what."

**~~~~PARACOSM**

In a cold hospital room that belonged to their beloved Phillip, Isabella Swan and the Lady Renee both sat as quiet as can be.

The brown-haired girl sat looking down at her hands with wide eyes. Her stature, her lack of speaking, and the expression on her face all showed the signs of someone who was extremely filled with guilt. She almost reacted as if she'd been the one who'd committed the awful deed of paralyzing Phil.

Renee Swan did not keep her suspicions inconspicuous. Every so often she would patently flash her accusing eyes towards the way of her distraught daughter.

There had only been two people present in the house at the time of the accident. Renee would like to believe that her daughter had always been jealous of her relationship with Phil. Only someone harrowing and despicable would do something so gruesome to a person out of spite. Renee knew her daughter to be this person. She did not care about what anyone else thought of the situation.

Phil had awoken plenty of times since the accident. He'd given his statement to the doctors of what happened that night. He told the same story every time that he was asked to account for the events. Isabella had been using the bathroom when he tripped over something at the top of the stairs.

Even though he'd very well clarified that Isabella hadn't been involved in his falling Renee couldn't help but feel like her daughter was somehow responsible.

She did not accept his explanation as easily as the doctors did. They did not know the things that she knew about her daughter. They did not know that there was a completely flat surface at the top of the stairs in the Swan/Dwyer household. There was no way possible that Phil could have just simply tripped and fallen. Someone would have had to manipulate his balance and caused him to fall down the stairs at a very purposeful angle to have resulted in him breaking his neck.

As much as the woman thought she knew, she actually did not. Isabella was the only one who knew the real truth about the devastating accident.

Edward had been the one who'd caused Phil to trip that night and there was a very intentional reason why Phil was alive right now. If Edward had wanted to kill Phillip he would have done so without hesitation. The result of Phil's fall had been deliberate on Edward's part. He'd known exactly what he was doing.

This fate would be much more unpleasant for Phil than death would have been. If Phil would have just died he would have only been gone. His existence would have dissipated. He would be even less than the worthless piece of nothing than he already was. He wouldn't have had a sense of what true punishment felt like. Now he'd be very well alive.

He would never be able to move his body again. He would never be allowed to thrive off of his anger as reason to put his hands on Renee. Edward had not done anything for her benefit. In fact, he probably would have said that she deserved Phillip's foul treatment. His only motivation had been Isabella. Her safety came first to him since it was clear that it was of no regard to anyone else who claimed to care for her.

Phil Dwyer would never be allowed to hurt the girl again.

"It is getting late mother." Isabella said softly. Still looking down, she could not bear to look into her mother's reproachful eyes. It would only result in making her feel a lot more guilty than she was deserved to feel. "You have to go to work in the morning."

"Work?" The lady asked incredulously, she could hardly believe that the girl had enough nerve to bring up the subject. "Do you think I can even fathom the thought of work at this moment? If I were in your state of mind and it was you in that bed instead of Phil you would want me to be just a little more sympathetic would you not?"

Isabella opened her mouth to say something. An apology maybe, but she shut it just as quickly. She knew very well that there was nothing she could say that would make things better at this time of devastation.

"You should go Isabella." Her mother said dismissively. The lady felt too much comtempt for her daughter at the moment, she did not want her here any longer. "I'm going to stay with Phil. It seems you have better things to do with your time."

Isabella opened her mouth to speak, and again she could think of no response. She stood silently. "Goodbye mother. Have a good night. I love you."

When the girl realized that her mother was not going to respond she sighed and started her walk towards the door.

"Isabella?" Renee said once she'd made it to the doorway.

"Yes mother?" A small smile started on Isabella's otherwise sullen face. Her mother would not let her leave without telling her that she loved her back.

Her mother loved her, she just knew it.

"Make sure you clean the house. I won't be there to get it done."

Isabella could feel her smile drop onto the floor and shatter into a thousand pieces. There was only apathy in her mother's voice, no sense of love whatsoever. The girl fell silent for a moment, considering. She'd remembered something of Edward telling her that Renee did not care about her, and she was starting to wonder if maybe his accusation hadn't just been a spiteful lie.

With another quiet sigh, Isabella left her mother and Phillip to their privacy. The hospital was bitterly cold and the halls always reeked of bleach and other harsh cleaning solutions. Isabella did not like to be in hospitals. She had no memory of ever being a patient in one, but every-time she would be forced to visit the infirmary she would always get a very vague and unpleasant feeling of déjà vu.

"Isabella!" When Isabella heard someone calling her name she abruptly stopped her trek down the narrow hallway. She turned towards the sound of the unfamiliar voice dubiously. A young doctor with blond hair and a sympathetic smile approached her.

"Um...hello." Isabella gave the attractive man a polite smile because she figured that this was the correct thing to do. She'd never seen this doctor before or personally had a conversation with him, but Forks was a small town. It was only ordinary that she knew of him. "How are you Dr. Cullen?"

"Oh, I'm well. How about you?" He inquired, watching her face.

The doctor could not believe how grown-up the little girl who'd once been his patient had gotten. He knew that she could not remember him and for this he was glad. He did not want this girl to know that the unwavering guilt he felt inside was a result from the unforgivable deed he'd committed six years ago.

He'd agreed to damage a perfectly normal girl for greed and self-satisfaction. He couldn't remember a day that went by where he wouldn't desperately wish he could go back.

"I'm quite alright. Thank you for asking. I take that you're not busy at the moment?" If there was one thing that Isabella was good at it was meaningless small talk.

"No." The doctor smiled at her. She felt something imprecisely flickering inside of her.

Recognition?

Familiarity?

"I'm sorry about what happened." Isabella looked at the man questioningly. Her eyebrows were raised with her curiousity while she waited for the man to clarify what he was referring to. "About your step-father."

When the doctor said this Isabella couldn't help but feel like Phil's accident wasn't the only thing that he was sorry about. His sympathetic tone almost made him sound desperately guilty. This struck Isabella as extremely odd...what could a person she'd never met have possibly done to her that would make him feel sorry for?

"Me too." She said softly and she really was. Even though Phillip hadn't been the best parent to her she still couldn't fathom a thought of wanting something like what Edward caused to happen to him. She looked down at the floor to recollect her thoughts. "Thank you Dr. Cullen."

"Sure. I hope everything is well with you."

"Yes. Everything is absolutely fine." Isabella nodded her head. She was not a very good liar and she could easily see that this man did not believe her. She knew that he would not pry though.

For the first time today she was actually relieved.

"That's good to hear Isabella. I just want you to know that If you ever need someone to talk to about anything at all I am always free to listen." The man gave her a very sincere smile before glancing down at his watch. "It's getting late. I won't keep you waiting. I know you have school in the morning."

"Yeah." Isabella nodded her head wryly. She could not figure out this man's intentions. "It was nice talking with you Dr. Cullen." Again Isabella could tell that the startling doctor did not believe her, but he smiled and nodded his golden head at her anyway.

"Likewise Isabella. Have a good night."

**~~~~PARACOSM**

The drive home from the hospital was a long and unpleasant one. The car was filled with silence as Isabella drove along the slick highway road. It would seem that the silence in the car could be used for Isabella to think things through, but she could not force her stubborn mind to foccus on one coherent thing for a long enough time to actually establish anything significant from it.

The silence was one thing that Isabella found truly unwelcoming. It reminded Isabella of emptiness. Things that were empty could only be filled, and the silence around Isabella always seemed to fill itself with the depressing aspects of her life that she'd much rather keep repressed.

One thing that Isabella found easy to get her mind to focus on was Edward. She shivered at the thought of the dreadful person he'd become. Why did he always have to do the most terrifying things? She hated him for that, but at the same time was glad that he kept her aware of how unforgiving this world really was.

She resented him but loved him all the same.

When she'd finally arrived home and pulled into her driveway, she could see the vague shadow of a boy sitting upon the old tire swing that hung from the large pine-tree in her front yard. Isabella did not want to admit that despite everything that had happened she was almost happy to see him again.

"You've been thinking about me a lot lately." Edward pushed himself forward on the swing and kicked back to keep himself moving. To an outsider the tire swing would appear to have taken flight by itself or perhaps from a sudden gust of wind. Only Isabella could see that there was an invisible boy maneuvering the swing. He did not look at Isabella as she came to stand against the tree.

"Why didn't you come sooner then?" She liked watching him like this. He looked so much like a child. Carefree and beautiful. That was how she remembered him.

He was silent for a moment, but Isabella could see the hint of a smile playing on his lips. "It's not as if you were longing for my company." He turned his face to look at her. "I was giving you some time. I thought that maybe you'd wanted me to stay away for a while."

"You thought wrong." Isabella said quietly and then she'd wondered briefly if the time she'd spent away from him had somehow benefited her more than she could realize. Had Edward stayed around while she was upset would she have not only treated him with contempt like her mother had done to her?

"I am seldom wrong Isabella...maybe you should start to put your confidence in that fact." There was a blatant warning in his choice of words, but Isabella noted that he kept his face disturbingly nonchalant.

This infuritated the brown-eyed girl. The casual way that he'd been regarding this situation was enraging to say the least. It was almost like he'd expected her to be happy about what he'd done. "You have no right to be so unconcerned about the trouble you've caused Edward. In fact, you should be groveling on your knees for my forgiveness."

Edward scoffed and his swing came to an abrupt stop. With his face mere inches from hers she could see just how easily she'd offended him. "Oh, would that do well to ease your misery?" Edward did not put any effort into sheathing the razors inside of his voice. Isabella flinched back from the plain sound of his sharp tone. "I do not see you telling the people who actually harm you to grovel on their knees."

"I am not miserable." The girl said simply. Although, she couldn't remember if this was just one of the things she'd made herself believe, or if it was actually true.

"Let me give you some advice Isabella...if you are going lie about something at least make sure it's worth lying about." Edward looked at her wryly. His eyes still narrowed and dark with emotion. "Or at least lie to someone who doesn't know you better than you know yourself."

"As long as I know everything is a lie I can't hurt myself." She said this more to herself than to Edward. He was still listening intently to her every word however.

"You are correct." Edward said in consideration. His voice was still sharp, but Isabella could detect just a little bit of compassion within his tone. "But don't fall into the trap of pretending everything is fine when you know it isn't. You will only make yourself even more unhappy, and then you'll get so content with the bad things in your life that you'll stop trying to fix them."

"Is that what your doing then? Fixing my life?" Isabella raised her eyebrows with her question.

"I just want you to be happy." He managed finally, regaining the softer side of himself. He looked at Isabella with the kindest green eyes she'd ever seen in her life. Edward was sincere with what he said, and she believed him wholly.

"I don't want you to hurt people for me." She said quietly.

"I don't want you just sitting around and letting people hurt you." He countered just as quietly as she had been. "It's a paradox. Which one of us is going to win Isabella?"

Isabella knew that she stood no chance against Edward. They both wanted two completely different things, and if they were to challenge eachother Edward would always come out with the upper hand.

"What do I have to do?" The girl asked.

"Open up you eyes. Stop hiding from what frightens you. You can't hide from it if it's right infront of you." His answer was so vague but she'd take it into consideration nonetheless.

"What are you talking about Edward?" She couldn't help but ask this.

Edward shook his head at his friend. He would not tell her all of the answers.

Isabella sighed stuborrnly. "Where do I find these answers? I don't even know where to start."

"Well." Edward tilted his head to the side with a small smile on his lips. "What are you curious about at the moment?"

"I want to know why you feel so lowly of my mother. I want to know why ever since you've come back I keep getting these weird feelings of déjà vu."

"Déjà vu?" The boy asked curiously. He was silent for another moment before moving on quickly. "Where have you been feeling déjà vu at lately?"

"I felt it most recently when I was inside of the hospital. I met a doctor before I left and I could have sworn I've talked to him before, but I can't recall knowing him any time before today."

"Dr. Cullen." Edward said knowingly. He looked up at her and smirked when she hesitantly nodded her head.

"You know him?" If Edward knew him then that meant she must have had to know him as well.

"You know him." Edward said instead. "You know him from when you were a child Isabella. That is why you can't remember him."

"Do you know why I can't remember anything of my childhood then?" Renee had told Isabella that she'd been really sick when she was a child and that her medicine had caused her to lose her memory. Whenever Isabella wanted her mother to elaborate more on the confusing topic she would shut down on Isabella completely. Isabella had always been curious about her memory lost.

"Yes." Edward said. "But I'm not going to tell you."

Isabella felt a frown taking over the features of her face. "You irritate me so." She managed to say this very harshly. Her hope had completely deflated into desolation. How would she ever find these answers on her own? Her mother would never tell her the truth, and Edward was just too damn vague.

The boy acknowleged her words quietly. He decided not to let them offend him. She was indeed only a human...humans often said things that they didn't mean, or out of the anger in the moment.

"Tell me something Isabella." Edward smiled at his friend. She was really a clever girl. She was just one of those people who needed a little push in the right direction. "How did you stumble upon me again?"

"I was going downstairs to retrieve my clothes from out of the laundry room. When I was on my way back upstairs I noticed that the door to that storage room my mother always kept locked up was open. I was curious so I went in to see what secrets it held and then I saw your picture." Isabella smiled at the memory of the stunning little boy that she must have painted.

"You didn't know who I was though...not at first." He said lightly. Isabella had to wonder what he was getting at. "What made you recollect your memory of me?"

Isabella smiled with recognition. "I read a journal entry."

"Right." Edward nodded his head. When his messy hair fell into his eyes Isabella reached forward and brushed it away from his face. Nothing should ever be allowed to cover those startling green eyes.

"There were tons of notebooks in that room. Tons of memories." Isabella said, the hopefulness inside of her voice steadily increasing. "I bet I can find a lot of answers from within those books."

"It would probably make things a whole lot more clear for you and then maybe you wouldn't be so confused as to why I feel the way I do about certain aspects in your life."

"I won't like everything I find will I?" Isabella already knew the answer to this question herself. The question was mostly rhetorical.

Edward shook his head once, "But once you know the truth you'll be a lot less frustrated."

"Don't hurt anyone else Edward." Isabella said this seriously. Her eyes were large and pleading. She knew the capabilities of her friend. She didn't want anything bad happening to anyone else. Isabella would try to find the answers to her questions and correct her life as best she could, and she knew Edward would always be there with her.

That was all she needed. Edward was all that she needed.

"If you don't let anyone else hurt you..." He said this very simply. He loved her. "I wouldn't have a reason to defend you Isabella...my beautiful little girl."

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><p><strong>NEW AUTHOR NOTE! : <strong>

**Another Question!**

**If you were an imaginary friend how would you feel?****If you were painfully aware of the fact that you were not real and had no life of your own how would you feel?**

**If you knew one day you were going to be neglected and forgotten...you knew that there was no place for you to belong...you were stuck in a world where you were invisible to everyone except one person... would you go completely mad?**

**Thanks for reading :)**

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	6. Tortured Soul

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**Sorry for the late update. We're really working with a legitament ecxuse though...because we've been really busy with taking finals in school and stuff, but we're on winter break now so updates will become more frequent. :)**

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><p><strong>-PARACOSM-<strong>

**CHAPTER 6 :**

**TORTURED SOUL**

"It's a shame." The bronze-haired boy said in his attractively soft voice. He gave his friend a droll look and continued to speak in that bland tone of his. "Your mother had to go through all of this unnecessary secretiveness just to keep you oblivious of the things that she has done to you."

The girl sighed inwardly as they stood outside of the locked closet door. She had known for a fact that her mother would resort to locking the door again, Renee did not want Isabella knowing what was inside of that room for a reason.

Edward was that reason...

The girl just hadn't known that the key to unlock the door would be practically impossible to find. "She must have taken it with her then."

"Come here." Edward said quietly. He held his hand out towards the girl, and she took it without any moments of brief hesitation. Pulling her to his chest, he smiled. "I excel at all things Isabella."

She could feel the abrupt coolness of his breath as his hand reached forward to stroke her hair. She was extremely confused by this affectionate gesture, but she did not tell him to stop otherwise. For a lack of better words, it was nice.

"What is that supposed to mean?" The girl managed to ask. This only brought another infinitesimal smile onto the boy's alluring face.

His cold hand moved to the top of her head where he quickly plucked something from out of her waving hair. "It means that I should be able to pick a lock quite easily."

Isabella chuckled. Her unruly bangs fell into her face as Edward held before her the bobby pin that had been holding her hair back.

"You could have just broken the knob." She accused, as she watched her friend practically float over to the door in his gracefulness.

"Yes." The boy agreed. "But then how would you explain that to your mother? We both know that you are not particularly skilled in the area of lying."

"I assume that you excel at that too?"

"I could." The boy looked at her instead of the door that his hands were still working to unlock. "But why waste my precious breath deceiving someone? It isn't as if you get better results...in the end it all comes back on you. The truth will always be found if it is desired enough."

A small click resonated inside of Isabella's ears and with a triumphant expression Edward easily pushed the closet door open.

"Journals, paintings, childhood toys...does any of this ring a bell Isabella?" The boy asked, interrupting whatever it was that his companion had been thinking.

Of course looking at these things Isabella felt a vague sensation of familiarity, and when she reached down to retrieve an old teddy bear from it's cold floor bed she could almost remember a time when she and Edward had played pretend tea party with it.

"Where should I start?" The girl hugged the stuffed animal to her chest with a sigh and a growing smile. There were just so many questions to be asked and so many answers waiting to be rightfully found.

The boy knelt down to pick up a book that was sprawled carelessly on the floor. It's spine facing upwards with years worth of collected dust shielding the words on the front cover.

"The beginning...or perhaps you should start at the end. Either way you go about it you will still uncover the missing part of your memory that you've been yearning to find." The boy blew across the cover of the withered journal and inspected the title closely. "Isabella's first journal. This one starts when you were seven. I believe this is the earliest one to be dated."

"I'll start reading it when we get back upstairs. Could you help me bring all of these up to my room?" Isabella had no doubts that her friend was more than capable of carrying all of her twenty-something books upstairs by himself. She also had no doubts that he would willingly do it.

"Very well." Edward smiled at the girl briefly. "Are you taking Lieutenant Teddy upstairs as well?"

"Lieutenant Teddy?" The girl gave her friend an odd look.

He watched her a moment, wondering if it would sink into her disturbingly barricaded mind. The girl stared at the bronze haired boy blankly, her smile drooping until it finally hit her. She looked down into her hands at the bear that she still clutched protectively to her chest.

"Is that what I named him then? Lieutenant Teddy? Had I harbored not an ounce of creativity during my childhood?"

"Well you were seven." The boy commented thoughtfully. "I think you were even more creative than you are now."

Isabella wondered what he'd meant by that but did not get a chance to dwell on it. With the journals securely in his arms, Edward made his move to retreat upstairs. Isabella did follow him silently, taking her other forgotten friend in her arm as well.

In her room the two teenagers proceeded to put the journals in order from beginning to end. The first one started in the year 1994 and that was the year that she started seeing a psychiatrist. The last journal was started four years later which would have put her at age eleven.

"So, I lost my memory in 1998?" The girl looked down at the boy who was resting his head soundly in her lap, the books spread out around them on her bed. This position felt oddly habitual to Isabella, but she couldn't remember a time when they'd been positioned liked this.

"Yes." Edward said lightly. He smiled a little. "Why don't you stop asking me questions and just start reading? Trust that these journals will tell you every thing you want to know."

"Okay okay." The girl picked up the first book, opened it to the first page, and prepared to read aloud to her imaginary friend. "I am Isabella Swan, I am seven years old..."

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><p><strong><em>June 22, 1994 : My first Journal Entry<em>**

_I am Isabella Swan, I am seven years old._

_I always have a lot of things floating around in my mind. Edward is the only person that I can talk to since the kids at school think that I am weird and my mother does not agree with the way that I think._

_Sometimes I want someone else to talk to.__ Edward is always there to listen to my thoughts but only when I choose to vocalize them since he can't read my mind._

_But most of my thoughts are about him. It's embarrassing really, how much I actually think about him._

_I love him more than I have ever loved anything else in this world and I will never love something as dearly as I love Edward._

_I know that he loves me too..._

_But I like the thought of keeping some things to myself. This is why I have decided to start writing in a journal._

_I can write about Edward for hours if I was actually given the chance. It feels good to actually talk about him without getting reprimanded by my oblivious mother._

_The first time she'd learned of Edward was a day she walked in on us watching television together and she hadn't even been unnerved by the fact of him then. She'd thought the idea of me making myself a friend was completely normal. She'd even smiled and went along with it even though I knew she didn't really believe me._

_It wasn't until the day she'd confronted me about her missing pearl necklace I loved so much that she'd started to think something was wrong with me._

_I remember that day clearly. I remember every word that we'd uttered to each other._

_Edward and I had been in my room playing dress up. "Your mother is very displeased with you Bella." He warned me just as I heard my mother screeching my name from the downstairs foyer._

_"Isabella!" A few seconds later she'd busted through my bedroom door with a certain look of anger I'd never seen before upon her pretty face._

_"Mother, have I done something out of order?"_

_"Where is it?" She had asked. And there was no patience whatsoever in the tone of her femininely, smooth voice. "Where is the pearl necklace Isabella?"_

_I looked down into my hands with guilt. I'd loved that necklace so much. It was so pretty and fit for a princess. As long as I had pleaded with my mother for just a few minutes with it she had never given me the permission. _

_I'd just wanted to wear it one time with one of my best white dresses. I wanted to twirl around with it in my mirror like a princess and act like Edward was my prince...for just a few minutes._

_ But Edward had been playing a little too much. He'd pulled the necklace right from around my neck and the priceless pearls just shattered noisily across my floor._

_"I'm sorry." I whispered in a voice too small for anyone but maybe Edward to hear. "You told me not to play with it."_

_"What did you do little girl?" Sending a glance around the room she did not fail to notice the pile of pearls on my wooden floor. _

_"I'm sorry." I said again. What else could I say? There was nothing left but to hope that she could forgive me._

_"Oh." She'd gasped, a hand over her heart. "Had you no idea what that necklace meant to me?"_

_She'd never really explained to me why the necklace was so important to her but I had always known that held some kind of sentimental value._

_Edward was the one who had informed me of the necklace's history. He'd pried the information from within the confines of my mother's mind._

_"It was your mothers." I said with certainty. "It was the only thing left to you when she'd passed away."_

_My mother looked down at me with a ragged sob. Her brown eyes were horribly accusing when they narrowed onto mines. "How did you know that? Who told you that? I never told you that."_

_Oh but she didn't have to. _

_From time to time I'd noticed my mother drifting off into a far away place. Her eyes would get glossy and she would stop what ever activity she'd been entranced in for a moment. It was times like those when I wished that I could read her mind._

_I desperately desired to know what she was thinking and maybe that was why Edward came into my world with such an useful ability._

_I'd learned a lot about my mother from the things that only Edward could hear._

_My mother was the one who was always the least favored out of the two children Grandmother Swan had been blessed to conceive. Renee had spent her entire life trying to please her mother. She'd do what ever it was that her mother's heart desired for her to do. _

_She dated the boys that her mother wanted her to date, hung out with only the friends that her mother approved of, and joined the clubs at school that her mother saw fit for a young prospering lady. _

_Though, no matter what my mother seemed to do she was always second best and in the shadow of her dear sister._

_Grandma Swan's aversion towards my mom only got worse when she became pregnant with me. My mom was still in high school and Charlie was not the ideal man that Gran had envisioned for her. _

_My grandmother had gotten sick only shortly after I had been born, and in her will the only thing that she left to my mom was a simple pearl necklace._

_"Who told you Isabella?" My mother asked me again. Her voice rising just a little bit in volume with her impatience. I continued to look down. I did not want to get Edward in trouble. He was my only friend._

_"She won't believe you anyway." Edward said calmly. He sat on my bed perfectly contrite. It wasn't only my fault that the necklace had been destroyed. Edward was the one who pulled it from around my neck and he would take the blame if he could. "But you have to explain what you know somehow."_

_"Edward told me." I said simply, silently hoping that my mother would not make me speak more about it._

_"Edward?" She asked in a tone which implied that she was not pleased with my disobedience. "Isabella you stop it with that Edward nonsense. Edward is not real."_

_"But he is real mother." I insisted quietly. I was never one to cross my mother. I'd always been taught to agree with adults even if they were wrong. I was to stay in a child's place which meant that I was not to challenge adults. "He tells me things all of the time. He knew about the pearl necklace because he read your mind."_

_"Oh." She scoffed loudly at my creativity. "Your imaginary friend can read minds? If he knew how valuable that necklace was to me why would he not stop you from taking it?"_

_"He tried and I was stubborn. It was just so pretty to my eyes. I'd wanted to dress up in a white dress and wear it like you did when you married daddy."_

_Renee shook her head in confusion, refusing to believe that I could actually see a person in this room that she could not. But then how could I had known that she'd worn her mother's pearls when she'd gotten married to Charlie. I hadn't even been born at the time and she always refused to speak of anything concerning my father._

_I had never been quite the normal child. I'd always rather spend my free time retreating into myself than with playing with other kids my own age. _

_My mother had only always believed that I was shy, but that was until I'd fabricated an imaginary friend that showed so many qualities of not being imaginary._

_It was only then when the my dear mother started to question if not I was fully sane._

_It hurt to know how my mother really feels about me but Edward tell me not to worry. He promises that he will always love me no matter what. _

_And that is enough to keep me happy._

* * *

><p><strong><em>June 24, 1994 : A shrink?<em>**

_I am Isabella Swan, I don't know what a shrink is._

_Edward knows a lot of more stuff than I do. I don't like to admit it often but he is smarter than I am. He tried to explain to me what a shrink was. _

_Apparently, a shrink is a doctor who helps people whose brains are unhealthy._

_I don't know how mine got sick. In fact, Edward told that there is absolutely nothing wrong with me. My mother has been acting funny ever since I broke her pearl necklace and told her that Edward could read minds._

_She is the one who thinks that my brain is sick. She called and set me up an appointment with a shrink to get evaluated. _

_E__dward tells me that they are going to ask me a lot of questions about him and that when they do I should lie so that I won't seem as abnormal as Renee made me out to be._

_But I cannot lie...especially not about Edward._

_When I did meet my shrink I learned that his name is Dr. Jacob Black. He told me that I could call him Jacob or Dr. Black but I decided that I liked the name Jake better._

_"So Isabella." I remembered him saying lightly. "Do you know why you're here?"_

_"My mom thinks I'm crazy?" _

_The doctor chuckled at me and jotted something down on the notepad resting in his lap._

_"He wrote down that you are very perceptive." Edward told me wryly._

_ "Oh no Isabella, you've got it all wrong. Your mother is simply worried about your mental health and she wants me to see if there is anything that can make you better. First I have to learn more about you though. She tells me that you have a friend named Edward." _

_I was glad that this part of the session allowed me to talk to my shrink without the accompany of my mother. She always got disturbed whenever I mentioned Edward's name around her._

_"Yes." I nodded my head surely. "His name is Edward Masen. I named him myself."_

_"Oh? And how old is Edward?"_

_"I would suppose that he is around my age but he doesn't actually have a birthday because he wasn't actually born."_

_"So seven is accurate enough then?" The doctor asked me as if he actually believed me for a second which I knew very well that he didn't._

_I nodded my head again._

_"Is there anything that Edward can do well? Anything that makes him special?"_

_"Edward excels at almost everything he does." I said proudly and I made sure to send a pointed look over at Edward. He was standing against the wall by the door. His arms were crossed tightly across his chest. He didn't want to be here anymore than I did, but my compliment had easily put an arrogant smile on his face nonetheless._

_"Yes." The doctor said. "But what makes him special Isabella?" This was a vague question if I'd ever heard one. Hadn't the doctor being listening to me at all? I'd just said that Edward did everything well. There were so many special things about him...how could I force myself to choose just one?_

_"He wants you to tell him that I read minds. Surely you know that Renee has already told him all of this stuff. He just wants to hear it from you." Edward said this to me from across the room._

_"Edward can read minds. Is that what you wanted to hear?"_

_"Why do you say that Isabella?"_

_"Because." I said. "Edward told me that my mother has already informed you about him."_

_"Edward told you that?" He asked me curiously. He had a small smile on his face though the skepticism was still clear in his expression and tone. _

_"Yes."_

_"And is Edward here now?" He raised his eyebrows with his inquiry, looking around the room and neglecting to see the boy who was so blatantly obvious to my eyes._

_"Yes." _

_"Well, if Edward is here and can read minds why don't you ask him to tell you what I am thinking."_

_"No...I hate when people do this." Edward whined childishly. He didn't like when I told people that he could read minds because they always challenged him and every single time they challenged him he'd end up getting the subject of their mindset correct. They'd think I was even more bizarre than to begin with because in the end they still wouldn't believe that my imaginary friend was real._

_"Edward doesn't want to." _

_"Why not?"_

_"Because he is always right."_

_"What if I told you that Edward doesn't want to read my mind because he can't? What if I told you that Edward doesn't exist and that imaginary friends are not real. They are just a figment of our imaginations."_

_"I would tell you that you are wrong and not to ever say that again because every time someone says that imaginary friends don't exist another one of them drops down dead."_

_The doctor gave me another peculiar look before writing something else down in his notebook._

_"He wrote down extremely creative and believable." Edward said quietly as he picked information out of the brain of my doctor. _

_Jake was completely oblivious like everyone else._

_ I actually wasn't extremely creative. Everything that I'd ever said about Edward was true._

_"I think that's all that we need today Isabella. We'll be seeing each other again...and very soon."_

* * *

><p>"She got me a psychiatrist when I was only seven?" The girl asked incredulously. "She'd never once mentioned anything like this to me before."<p>

"Why should she have?" Edward said to his creator in a tone of pure harshness. "Her plan had worked. She'd succeeded in ridding you of me. She didn't want you to remember anything that could have possibly triggered memories of me. She wanted me gone forever."

"And so her plan hadn't actually succeeded." Isabella touched her friend's face gingerly. Looking down at him, his head still placed inside of her lap. She smiled just a little. "Here you are now."

"By mere chance." Edward shut his eyes. The feeling of torturous abandonment made his suppressed bitterness rise to the surface. "Had you not been so curious that night, I would still be rotting away in The Land of Forgotten Dreams."

"But..." The girl yawned before she could finish her sentence. "You are here now and you are here with me...is that not enough to satisfy you?"

The boy did his best not to take his anger out on his friend. He resented her, and while it may have not been entirely her fault for casting him away he was still entirely bitter that while he'd been banished and stuck in a place of turmoil she'd gone on living her life as if he didn't matter.

He couldn't read her mind so he didn't know that she spent all those years without him feeling as though something important was missing in her life.

All he knew was what he could see and that was that she'd easily replaced him and with horrible people who'd never once considered her well-being before their own.

Even though he resented her...he loved her all the same.

"Go to sleep Isabella." The sound of his voice was a lullaby itself. Even when it was bitter and harsh in tone. "We can read more later. You have school in the morning."

**~~~~PARACOSM**

Later, the girl awoke to the sound of her ringing alarm clock. There was no one else in the room with her. There was no one else in the house.

All was silent...and she hated the silence.

"Edward." She said closing her eyes again, still laying against her soft bed. "Edward, I need you."

The girl knew that she was getting a little too comfortable with calling for her friend's company. It felt natural to her now and she felt no need to acknowledge the fact that her desire to spend time with real people had evaporated. The only person that she needed and wanted to be accompanied by was Edward Masen.

"Pretty little girl." His rich voice felt like velvet to Isabella's ears. She could feel her lips warping into a wide smile. "Must you not get up for school?"

"I wish I didn't." The girl opened one eye to look at the boy sitting at the end of her bed. He was dressed in all black. The color set off the complexion of his skin in such a lovely way. "Could I skip this day? Just one day?"

"You are asking me?" The boy chuckled lightly. "I am not your mother Isabella. I will not tell you what you can and cannot do. This is your life...so live it."

Isabella considered this for a moment until her cell phone rang from within her wooden bed stand. She'd received a text from Michael whom she hadn't thought about for days now.

"He's already on his way." Isabella said with a sigh. She looked at Edward cautiously. "Will you promise me something before he arrives?"

"Hmm." He said, addressing her question with no intentions of agreements whatsoever. He did not have to be able to read her mind to know what she was suggesting. "You don't want me to hurt him?"

"No." Isabella shook her head wildly, as if the answer should have been obvious to Edward. "I told you that I don't want you hurting anyone."

"Then he'd better not hurt you."

Perhaps he'd expected this to sink in by now, but it did not. After a moment of silence, during which the two of them decided not to look at each other, he spoke again...with much more menace in his voice.

"Isabella...let me tell you that what happened to Phil was a warning. It was supposed to open your eyes and motivate you to start standing up for yourself. But If you can never find the strength to stand up for yourself I guess I'll just have to kill every single person that does you wrong until there is no one else left to harm you."

"Why must you say things like that Edward? To scare me into doing what you want me to do? Then how are you any better than everyone else who controls my life?"

"You misunderstand." He said, but not as an apology. "My intentions are not to persuade you into doing what it is that I want you to do...I am actually trying to make you realize what _you_ should _want_ to be doing. Why do you want to continue living such an unhappy life?"

"I don't." Isabella said swiftly. A glare of annoyance adorned the contours of her expression. To Edward's eyes she was still a stunning sight to behold as was he to her. Isabella hated that at one moment they were reunited and best friends again, but as soon as they were to disagree on something they had to start hating each other. "I'm trying to figure out the answers. I'm trying to regain my memory back...what more can I do?"

Last night when they were reading together he had no problems with her methods, but now that the mention of Mike had come about he'd changed into the violent side of himself that Isabella loathed so much. What had come over him? Isabella had not dared to think that jealousy was the result of his sudden change in demeanor.

Edward approached his friend, grasping her heated cheeks between his cold hands. He leaned towards her and Isabella almost thought that he was going to kiss the childish pout right off of her lips. She couldn't find it in herself to pull away from him even if her presumptions of his intentions were correct. She exhaled her warm breath against him and for a moment he just looked down at her.

"Edward?" She said after he'd been staring at her for a few uncomfortably long moments. Hearing the sound of his name seemed to bring him back from wherever it was his mind had went.

"What you need to do..." He seethed quietly. His lips touching her skin as he whispered inside of her ear. "Is try harder."

Isabella looked at her gorgeous friend with frightful eyes. She allowed herself a lingering glimpse at his slightly parted lips before pulling away from him with unnecessary force. "I have to get ready for school."

"You want me to leave?" He asked this as if it meant nothing to him...but Isabella knew better.

She nodded her head once. "I'll see you later." She said this as a promise.

Edward watched sadly when she turned her back on him to retreat out of her bedroom door to the bathroom.

She had not a doubt in her mind that he would be gone when she got back.

* * *

><p><strong>Has anyone figured out how the title relates to the story yet?<strong>

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	7. Self  Hatred

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**WE WENT BACK AND EDITED SOME PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. WE ADDED A LITTLE MORE TO SOME OF THEM AND TOOK SOME THINGS OUT OF OTHERS.**

**ONE THING THAT WE HAD TO CHANGE IN ORDER FOR THE PLOT TO WORK WAS THE AGE IN WHICH ISABELLA STARTED HER JOURNALS. INSTEAD Of AGE FIVE WE CHANGED IT TO AGE SEVEN.**

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* * *

><p><strong>PARACOSM-<strong>

**CHAPTER 7:**

**SELF-HATRED**

"Okay." Isabella heard an attractive soprano voice breaking through the silence of her concentration. She'd tried very hard to block out her friend's ceaseless chatter of plans for the winter dance, and she'd been so entranced with reading her childhood writing that she'd been doing a very good job of it. "What the hell are you reading in that journal Bella?"

Isabella felt her possession being ripped from between her unprepared fingers before she could force herself to make an actual protest. Alice Brandon scanned her blue eyes over the sloppy words written inside of the old journal and Isabella could tell very well by the look on Alice's pretty face that ignoring her talk about the winter dance had upset her wildly.

"What in the world is this?" The girl looked at her odd friend with confusion. Why would she decide to focus her attention on something as trivial as a childhood journal? They had more important matters to discuss at the time. "Where did you find this at anyway? It looks horribly ancient."

Isabella resisted the violent urge to wrench the book from out of the confines of Alice's discourteous hands. "You would not understand it's value Alice."

"Oh?" Alice chuckled despite herself at Isabella's irritation. "What value could this book possibly have to you?"

"Have you not known the concept of sentimental value? The journal has a lot of my childhood experiences inside of it." Isabella's disapproving frown startled her friend just a little because Alice had always known Isabella to be such a mild girl. The impolite one was puzzled to no ends as she could not understand why her friend had become so dangerously aroused over a dreary old journal. "I lost my memory many years ago."

Alice simply nodded her head, unwilling to admit that she didn't know her own friend well enough to know this fact.

"I'm sorry." Alice handed the journal back towards the girl. "I didn't know that this book was something special to you."

The brown eyed girl progressed to receive her journal from her friend...with a little too much force. "It is okay."

"I just wanted to discuss our plans for the winter dance." Alice proceeded to say. A tentative smile spreading across her face.

Isabella sighed, she carefully laid her book down on her school desk, already exceedingly uninterested with where she very well knew the conversation was leading. Before she had reunited with Edward, Isabella's views of the aspects of her life were simply neutral. Now, she could not deny that everything everyone else considered important struck her as impossibly trivial.

"I suppose it doesn't count that I _don't_ want to go to this dance." Isabella's gaze shifted from the desk to Alice's hopeful eyes. "But perhaps to go along with your plan is best?"

Alice nodded her head, showing her approval. Anything that would get Isabella to agree to the dance without fuss would be perfectly fine. "I've already ordered your dress."

Isabella didn't remember going to try on dresses with her friends. She didn't remember ever giving Alice the permission to simply pick a dress for her either. Now what if she were to not like the dress that Alice picked for her? Would she not be stuck with it all night?

Why could she not choose just one darling aspect of her life without the help of anyone else?

"Why do you not seem enthused Isabella? The dance is only a couple of days away." Alice couldn't understand for the life of her why Isabella never seemed excited over these things. "Are you still torn up over Phil's accident?"

That was a topic Isabella had heard brought up far too many times today. Every hall she turned down she ran into at least one person who'd offer her heart-warming condolences and empty apologies. Isabella did not like the fact that her classmates put on such sincere faces for her when in fact, she knew that she was probably quite actually the last thing on their minds.

People told her what they believed she wanted to hear because she was sweet old Isabella Swan. It was what they thought they were supposed to do.

She was indeed starting to believe more and more that Edward was the only one with her best intentions at heart. A pang of something she recognized as guilt struck her very suddenly. She hadn't treated Edward with much kindness this morning but still he had made her so upset. Why in the world did he have to be so infuriating and at the same time why did he have to be so lovable?

"Yes." Isabella decided to use Phil's catastrophe as a crutch. She tried not to allow herself the feeling of guilt. "It's been on my mind a lot." She wasn't exactly lying to Alice Brandon. Though a lie by omission was still a lie nonetheless.

"I'm sorry." Alice's voice lessened into a softer tone. Her words seemed a lot more genuine than Isabella knew them to actually be. "I guess we'll just discuss the plans later then. Are you coming over my house today?"

Isabella shook her head once. She could think of nothing she wanted to do less than waste the preciously fleeting hours of her day at Alice's house. "Phil should be coming home today. I'll need to be there to help my mother."

"Oh." Alice forced a small smile upon her pleasant face, despite the fact that she was not pleased. "I'll just call you later then."

**~~~~PARACOSM **

The school day seemed particularly ephemeral for dear Isabella. Her usually monotonous class periods were nothing more than a momentary lapse in time. She could not recall a single thing that she learned today but maybe that was the result of neglecting to take her role as the exemplary student that she was known to be.

Isabella had spent the majority of her day reading the journal that she'd taken to school with her. She'd learned a lot of things in that short time of eight hours and she could not wait to get home and discuss these things with Edward.

She was no longer mad at him, the anger that she'd felt this morning had all but completely evaporated along with all of her other worries.

Throughout the day the weather had diminished into what Isabella considered to be hazardous conditions. The roads were slick with sleet and icy rain was still steadily soaking the dangerously slippery asphalt. Isabella was careful to drive home very slowly. The time that it was taking to get back to Edward was irritating. Isabella had not realized yet how much she really craved her friend's company, she also had not realized how attracted she was to his mere presence. She did not think these aspects were important to consider.

She pulled up the driveway to her house almost thirty minutes later. The drive was still without other cars which meant that her mother had not made it home yet. The day when Phil was due to come home hadn't actually been determined yet. Isabella had just needed a good excuse to handle Alice's fanaticism. But over the brief phone call she'd had with her mother yesterday night Renee had mentioned that he was probably going to be coming home sometime this week.

Today could very well be that dreadful day...

How could Isabella ever look Phil in his face again, how could she go on acting like his sadistic abuse never occurred, and how could she possibly watch him be confined to a wheel chair without feeling even a little bit guilty.

"Isabella." Edward was waiting for her on the porch when she'd arrived. She knew that he would be waiting for her. She knew it was what he'd be doing every single day until she no longer needed him and Isabella could ever imagine a time when his presence would not be a necessity. "How did your day at school treat you?"

"It was tolerable. I spent most of my time reading though." Isabella held the journal before her. Edward's lips quirked softly in his approval as he nodded his head.

"Did you learn anything else interesting then?" The boy tilted his head slightly, waiting in patience for his friend to answer his question. She watched him in unabashed fascination, cold droplets from the rain fell in rhythm from the ends of his hair. He was soaked and yet totally comfortable standing there.

"Yes." Isabella replied, knowing this to be the truth. Her brown eyes were brazen with excitement instead of flat in their darkness. "I could not wait to come back here and tell you about it."

"Then...proceed to do just that." He said, voice faint in expectancy. He leaned back against the brass railing with easy composure. "I could hardly wait for your return."

Isabella could not contain the feminine chuckle that slipped between her lips. "You're soaking wet...yet you're entirely willing to stand out here in the cold and listen to me recite what I learned today?"

"Oh Isabella." Edward blew out a mockingly exasperated breath. "You and your sense of humor are equal amounts of odd."

Isabella smiled wide as she turned her house key in the the front door's keyhole and pushed into the house, holding the screen door wide to allow Edward inside.

The two of them went into the kitchen where Isabella fetched her friend a towel to dry himself.

"What did you learn today, Pretty girl?" The imaginary boy asked curiously.

Isabella sat down at the island and set her journal upon the granite counter. "Most of the stuff I'd already known. Jake and I started seeing each other every week. Most our meetings were centered around the subject of you of course. The more he asked about you, the more they'd concluded that something was wrong with me. My writings progressed through that first year I spent with Jake and then into when I turned eight."

"Oh?" A line of weariness found it's way upon the boy's brow. Isabella did not miss the change in his expression. "Did you read through the writings when you were eight?"

"I read through my mother meeting Phil, they went on a couple of dates, I was sent to my room a lot for being rude, and then eventually they moved in together."

"So, you didn't go any further than that then?"

Isabella shook her head, narrowing her eyes just a little. "Do you know something that I don't Edward? Should I have gone on?"

Her imaginary friend did not answer her question instead he walked over to where she sat and flipped the pages of her journal onto the one that she'd left off on.

The frown on Isabella's face deepened. "What's the meaning of this?"

"Read Isabella." He said simply. He sat next to her with a soft expression. "Read this to me out loud."

Her chocolate eyes regarded him wearily for a few moments before she opened her mouth to speak. "I am Isabella Swan, I played a new game with Phil yesterday..."

* * *

><p><strong>November 2, 1995 : A new game.<strong>

_I am Isabella Swan, I played a new game with Phil yesterday._

_It is late Saturday morning. I just woke up to the smell of my mother preparing breakfast in the kitchen below me. She's just started doing this since Phil has moved in. She tells me that she does those nice things for Phil because he is special to her and she loves him._

_I don't doubt my mother's love but I often wonder why she's never cooked breakfast for me..._

_Edward is not here with me right now because he is upset with me at the moment. He wants me to tell my mother about the game I played with Phil last night and when I refused his wishes he all but exploded on me._

_Edward is special and I know he knows things that I do not. I am ignorant in many ways that he makes up for but I'm not going to listen to Edward this time though. I can not stop thinking about how wrong it was. I can not stop thinking about how I never want to play that game again...I never want to be Phil's pretty little princess-dolly again._

_I don't know a lot of things but I know that he isn't supposed to kiss me the same exact way that he kisses my mother. I know that he isn't supposed to see me without my clothes on and I am not supposed to see him without his. He isn't supposed to touch me down there._

_Edward told me that none of it is my fault. I am just a little kid. Phil is the adult so if I tell my mother about what happened last night he will be the one who gets in trouble not me._

_I am a little kid but I absolutely know that what Phil and I did was very very wrong. My mother would be livid if she were to find out about our indecent behavior. She would completely hate me and that is not something I am willing to put up with. Hate from Renee is not something I could easily live with._

_All I know is that I don't want to play that game anymore, I don't want to be a princess anymore, and I don't feel right anymore. I know that I'll never feel right again. I'll never be right again.._

_In my head all I can hear is the sounds that he made. He chanted my name in a tone I'd never heard from him before._

_All I can feel is his weight on top of me and the pain I endure when he pushed against me. I could feel him everywhere on my body where he branded me with his combustible kisses._

_I told him to stop. I even begged him to stop. I pushed against him and wriggled to escape. He didn't hear me._

_He kept going and going and going...He kept chanting my name and branding me with his lips._

_It wasn't my fault. I didn't want to play anymore. I just wanted to go to bed and forget about it all. I wanted to call on Edward but I wouldn't dare let him see me like that. It took all of my might to resist thinking about him because my heart, body, and mind all knew that I needed him there with me._

_I cannot tell my mother and I cannot tell Jake._

_This is a secret. It is a weight on my shoulders that seems to be burying me more and more as I reflect upon it._

_I am alone in this. Not even Edward will be able to help me._

* * *

><p>"Oh my..." Isabella stuttered over the helpless words spewing from her mouth, her voice cracking under the tremendous weight of her emotional rampage. "No...no no."<p>

"Isabella." Edward's calm voice was quick to reach her ringing ears though it barely registered. The vague sound was pleasant but in that moment it did little to help the disoriented Isabella Swan.

The feeling of cool fingertips on her shoulder startled the despondent girl. She jerked away from the person with automatic aversion without even seeing to look who had touched her in the first place.

"No..." She shook her head, fat tears of anger and desolation obscuring her vision. "No...don't touch me!"

The boy was completely unwearied by her reaction, reaching out a hand to console her again. This time she allowed him to wrap his cold arms around her body and pull her into his lap. "You know I would never hurt you Isabella. I'd rather die than hurt you."

"Eight." She said, actually managing to swallow back her disgust. "I was eight...I was a little girl. He completely ruined me Edward."

"You're most definitely not ruined Isabella." Edward tightened his hold on his somnolent creator. His reassuring hug was utterly simple yet the perfect antidote in calming her down during the weight of this situation. "You're beautiful."

Isabella was silent as she leaned against him with closed eyes, but she seemed to compose a little before speaking again. "There is so much I don't know Edward. There is so much that I still need to learn. My mother locked all of my journals away...so she must have read them. She must know what happened and she'd chosen through all of these years to keep all of it from me."

Edward sighed lightly. He did not want to say _"I told you so"_ but he'd fairly warned her of her mother's immorality, and he'd warned her numerous times at that. He was not happy that _his_ Isabella was in pain but he was glad that she was finally starting to see the truth behind what she thought was the truth.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" Although, the imaginary friend was sure that he already knew what her answer would be.

"For not believing you of course." Believing Edward's brutal truths was about the last thing that Isabella ever wanted to do. She'd wanted to pretend that everything he said was a lie even though she'd always had that nagging voice in the back of her head that would question her mother's motives from time to time.

Edward chuckled to himself. "You have no self-preservation Isabella. That is why I must protect you...from everything that means you harm."

"I'm lucky to have you Edward." Isabella turned herself in his arms to look at him. "I haven't told you lately that I love you."

"But you don't have to for there is nothing I am more sure of." He looked down at her through his dark eye lashes. "I love you too Isabella and there is nothing that will ever change that."

Isabella believed him wholly, though she could detect his own pain inside of his voice. It never strayed far from her mind. She didn't know exactly how much he was hurting but she knew that he was. She knew that he loved her and she knew that he still put blame on her for sending him to the Forge of Forgotten Dreams.

"You have a dance to attend soon." Isabella nearly cringed at the reminder of his words. A dance was quite possibly the furthest thing from her mind at the moment. "I'm aware that you are not wanting to go to this dance."

Isabella opened her mouth to respond to his assumption, in the same moment that the house phone chose to ring to her attention. Isabella forgot the words on her tongue as she flitted across the room.

"Swan's residence." Isabella murmured purely polite. "May I ask whose speaking?"

"Hello Isabella." Both of the teenagers recognized the voice at once. Isabella took a second to glance at her friend with a knowing expression. "This is Dr. Cullen."

"Well, this a surprise. What is the manner of this phone call?"

"To inform you that your step-father will be released from the hospital tomorrow morning. His overall condition is stable. Although we have concluded that there is nothing we can do to reverse his paralysis."

"The fact that he is alive is a blessing in itself." From across the room she could hear her friend making a scoffing noise. "I am sure you've done everything you possibly can."

"Yes, your mother wasn't quite so understanding." Isabella was quick to detect the regret and sadness submerged deep inside of the young doctor's voice. She could only imagine how unreasonable and brash the Lady Renee must have been upon hearing the disappointing news. "I'm terribly sorry the way things turned out Isabella."

Isabella chose this moment to fall upon silently. This was where she had to consider her words before speaking again. "I hold no blame towards you Dr. Cullen. I hope that you know that to be true."

"Thank you Isabella." The relief inside of the man's voice was confusing to her, as was every other aspect about his character. "I will let you go now. I know you must have something of importance to be attending to and I have work that must be done."

"Of course." The girl's voice was faint when she spoke. "It was nice talking to you."

"Likewise Isabella. Have a good night."

The girl replaced the phone onto the wall when her ears met the ringing of the dial tone. She turned back around to face her friend, though he was already there standing but a mere feet away from her. She was not so much startled by his closeness as she was startled by the fact that she hadn't heard him move from his seat across the room or that he had crossed the room in such few seconds.

He stared down at her, with green eyes intent. Though he said nothing his expression spoke wonders.

"Does he mean me harm Edward?" Isabella's eyes flitted upward to meet his. Her trust in his judgment as evident as her love for him. They both were beginning to become more profound. "Do you know something that I do not know?"

"I know plenty." He said simply, not bothering to speak more about it. It was usual for him not to share what he knew about certain topics, and he fell quiet just as his creator knew he would. "But only because I yearned for the answers."

"As well as I." She felt nothing of displeasure as she proceeded to defend herself.

There was a smile inside of his heart but that smile would only ever be for his doe-eyed companion. "The truth terrifies you Isabella. You know this as well as I do."

"Fear must never be a reason not to try for something." There was a brief moment of silence in which Isabella was sure that she'd uttered something incredibly wrong. That is until her mysterious friend began to smile and then she knew without a doubt that she'd said exactly what he'd wanted her to say.

"I see you changing Isabella. Though it is slow, it is still very evident to my eyes." He leaned towards her as if to tell her a secret. "And the change that I see...is ever so lovely."

**~~~~PARACOSM**

Inside the bedroom of a teenage girl, two friends laid comfortably side by side. Journals were scattered around the room making carpets of paraphernalia all over the polished wood floors. Books were opened and just waiting to unleash the secrets they held inside of them.

"Are you ready for your mother and Phillip to return, Precious girl?" There was nothing but soft and curiosity inside of his voice. There was nothing but warmth for her there.

Isabella turned so that she was facing him on her side. She held the journal in her hands closed but made sure to save its page for later. "I am as ready as I'll ever be. I imagine my mother will be very unkind when she returns though."

"Naturally." Edward said thoughtfully, almost as if to himself. "She may be unkind but she will not hurt you."

"What if she does?" The girl would not admit to him that her mother had struck out at her at times of frustration, but she would admit that the Lady Renee had never critically hurt her. "What would you be compelled to dothen?"

"Don't ask such inane questions Isabella." The boy did not hide the cruelness he held inside for Renee Dwyer. He hated that just the most brief mentioning of the vile lady was enough to ruin his moods. "You know very well what I would be compelled to do if she ever hurt you."

Isabella did not voice her fear. She was already completely aware that Edward was the one most perceptive to it. "What about Dr. Cullen? You never answered my question about him."

"What was your question?" The two of them both knew exactly what her question had been. "Ask again and maybe you will find what you're looking for."

"Does he mean me harm?"

"Do you think he means you harm?" The boy's head tilted with curiosity. Interest glittered across his face until it reached his eyes and darkened them. His gaze was intent on hers. "Do you think he is capable of harming?"

"I don't know. Isn't everyone capable of harm?" She spoke truthfully, though her voice was thoughtful and question rhetorical. "There are times when I am speaking to him that he seems to be engulfed with guilt of some sort. When he is apologizing I can't help but think that he's sorry for a lot more than I can possibly comprehend at the moment. Perhaps you know why this is so?"

"I know plenty." One corner of the boy's mouth quirked upward, displaying his signature of a smile. Crooked and lovely. Isabella did not stop herself from putting a caressing hand to his cheek. It was then that he did not stop himself from completely melting into her touch. There was nothing the boy could recall that ever felt quite as pleasant as her warm fingertips on his face. With eyes closed he spoke again. "I will not tell you the answers Isabella. They're all in front of you."

The boy felt a shift in the girl's movements, her hand withdrawn from his face. His eyes reopened to see her brown ones still steadily boring into his own. There was something in those rich, chocolate orbs that he hadn't seen in them before. He found himself full of curiosity and surely he was confused, but only for second when she moved to leaned over him.

With his back still flat on the bed she was completely hovering over him. There were fibers in both of their bodies in which intended to force some rethinking into their clouded brains, but in that moment Isabella's mind was not what was propelling her forward towards the beautiful boy beneath her.

She tilted her face towards them, so close now that her sweet, warm breath was creating a cloud around the imaginary boy. He cursed himself for not being able to think clearly. He was completely still, so unnaturally unmoving that he could have been made out of stone.

He made no movements as her lips descended down upon his. He had never experienced anything like it before and he knew that never would he be successful in finding something worthy to compare the feeling to. She was warm all over, soft and delicate. She was in control for once as she locked her lips against his and killed him with her sweetness.

The kiss was a first for them both...

Isabella could not remember a time that she had ever truly enjoyed being kissed by someone but this kiss right here with the boy who did not truly exist...it was the best kiss she could have ever dreamed of. It was a slow movement instead of heatedly aggressive and though his lips were barely even responsive against hers, the coolness of his mouth was gently all she wanted.

It was brief but it was all they needed. A few moments passed after she'd pulled away from him in which they chose to share in silence.

There was something dangerous in both of them that knew what they had just done was very wrong but there was something even more dangerous in them that wanted to do it again.

For a moment, Isabella felt a smile carving upon her heated lips and in that moment she felt the need to make a promise to her dear Edward. This was a promise that she promised her own self that she would undoubtedly keep.

"I will find the answers Edward."

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><p><strong>That was chapter 7<strong>

**Sorry for the extensive wait on the update. I don't want to burden you with any of my personal problems but there is a legit reason why we haven't been writing lately.**

**Nautica won't be able to help me with the writing any longer. She's been in an accident that she's still recovering from. Originally, I was not even going to continue our stories without her but she really wants me to do this and I really can't refuse her wishes. Not at a time like this.**

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	8. Uncontrollable

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* * *

><p><strong>PARACOSM-<strong>

**CHAPTER 8:**

**UNCONTROLABLE**

In one instance, Edward Masen had progressed to hate everyone in his entirety of existence. He hated everyone and everything, and himself most of all.

But there was one person he could not hate, and he had no reason why he should ever want to. Isabella had taken his heart and he just hoped she knew that it was hers to keep.

"Edward, my love." Edward's shoulders drooped at the sound of the approaching voice, he'd wanted to be alone at this time. Perhaps, to clear his mind of their absurdities. Elizabeth was always a sparkling presence but right now he could not bear the thought of being bothered by her. "You're finally back? It seems as if I haven't seen you in ages."

"You couldn't have missed me much Elizabeth." Edward would not admit that he had hardly thought about her at all.

"Quite the contrary." The hazel-eyed beauty beamed, radiance seeming to manifest from within her. "I've barely made it through the days without your company."

"Seems as if you've been here more than often lately." Edward could not be concerned for his friend, but it was surely a sign that Elizabeth's creator had been requesting her friendship less and less. "How old is your creator now?"

There was only a brief moment of hesitation before the imaginary girl willed herself to reply. "She just turned fifteen a few days ago. I fear that my time with her may be coming to an end."

"There is nothing to fear Elizabeth." Edward's words were faint, unharsh. But not what she wanted to hear. "Everything must eventually come to an end. A finale is inevitable."

Elizabeth's gaze darted away from his own, deciding to focus on her beautiful surroundings instead of her beautiful, indifferent friend. "There isn't much comfort in your words Edward. I had hoped for a phrase that might warm my heart somehow."

"Comfort won't aid you now Elizabeth. Only reality." Edward thought to himself to take his own advice.

"Except there is no reality for us Edward." She heard herself sigh, felt herself shudder. She was terrified for the future which was something that didn't quite exist for her. "There is something I've been meaning to tell you Edward."

_**(**"I love you..."**)**_

Her thoughts were unintentionally loquacious, they were perfidious in the way that they spewed all of the secret words that she'd believed to be hidden inside of her mind's deepest depths. The boy was not a stranger to those words, for he had to have heard them a thousand times in her head at least. He was not surprised but completely displeased that she had chosen such a terrible time to actually say them to him.

"I've come to find that I am in love." Elizabeth sent the briefest of smiles his way, that smile alone could have said those three detrimental words better than he knew she would. "My heart is flying high."

He took a moment to ponder, to wonder how she could possibly think that she was in love with him. Elizabeth did not know of the concept, she loved her creator but that was not the same as being in love.

No, those two types of love were extremely different. Those two types of love confused Edward to no ends, but at the same time...they made perfect sense.

"What of your heart Edward? Is it soaring on wings?" She watched him for a moment as she waited on him to respond, patience was her virtue.

"My heart is no longer mines Lizzy and I'm quite aware that I may never get it back."

The pretty, imaginary girl perked up at his admission. In her moment of self-righteousness she had mistaken the boy to be referring to her.

"How romantic this is." She shook her reeling head, the yellow carnation in her hair did not fall out. It's color shone as vibrantly as the gold specks in her eyes and Edward noticed again that his dear Elizabeth was perfect. She was an incredible sight to look upon, but not nearly as perfect as Isabella was. Because to him perfect didn't always have to mean flawless. Perfect was Isabella. She was the very definition. "Your heart has been stolen?"

"Quite the contrary." He replied, stealing her words from earlier. "I gave it away willingly."

"Oh, does this girl know this?" Elizabeth brows knitted together, her eyes widening with her ignorant curiosity. "You cannot be silent about things like love."

Edward could not help the smile, he only found it slightly amusing that Elizabeth would think to give him advice on love when she was as ignorant as ever. "I'm sure that she knows Elizabeth. You'll know when someone has given you their heart."

Elizabeth looked down for a moment, she was confused when she realized that Edward must not have been talking about her. She was sure that she would have known if Edward had given his heart to her, her doubts about that were nonexistent. But then there was only one other girl that she knew of her love ever knowing.

_**(Isabella Swan...)**_

"Are you insane Edward?" Her voice was quiet when she finally decided to speak again. "Surely you're aware that you cannot have a future with her? It's impossible."

Edward did not blame Elizabeth for being bitter. His ideals were absurd and his heart was incredulous. He could not find it in himself to control either one, he could not find it in himself to want to control them.

"You cannot offer her anything." Her voice was harsh, her eyes were lowered, narrowed. She was angry but not in the right way or for the right reason. Could she not see that he couldn't offer her anything either? His existence was absolutely useless and he knew this to be true. "You'll only hold her back from reaching her true potential. She'll never get to live a normal life and one day she'll come to resent you for that."

Elizabeth's words were true, though he would have sufficed better had she just ripped his heart right out of his chest. There were no words to describe the devastation exploding in the pit of his stomach. His arms wrapped around himself almost as if he were cold, but he was not cold. That was another impossibility for him. His arms were coiled around his torso to keep himself from falling apart because he was sure that he'd felt something shatter inside of him.

"You'll never get to experience what true romance is." Elizabeth's frown was all wrong on her face, she was created to bring joy and happiness. Her purpose was to make people smile not to kill them with her acidulous words. "You'll never get to feel the pleasure or bask in the warmth of it."

Edward did not look at his friend, he stared straight ahead at the sun before them. His mood was darkened, demolished. The content of what Elizabeth had said had caused him to hate her.

"To love when there is no chance of that love ever thriving..." The boy took a second to relinquish his ill feelings. Elizabeth was not to be blamed here. He respected her for speaking her mind, but that respect did not stop her words from hurting any less. He knew everything she'd said to be absolutely true and he was content to brand himself as a masochist. Because as hard as he tried, he could not get the truth to change how he felt on the inside. "That is true romance Elizabeth..."

**~~~~PARACOSM**

Isabella was not quite so sure how it happened but she'd fallen in love with her imaginary friend somehow. It wasn't something that she cared to admit to herself since she knew it to be very wrong, but there was no way that she would ever let herself deny it.

Edward did not truly exist. He was but a figment of her imagination, but why did he feel so real to her then? She could not maybe go a second without recalling the peculiar occurrence that transpired in her bedroom last night. No, her mind couldn't help reminiscing about the way Edward's lips felt when they were moving so shyly against her own, or the way that he made her feel wonderfully wanted without doing anything in particular but being there. Isabella had never conjured that type of emotion out of anyone before.

"What has your mind captive?" It was almost hard to believe that half of her day had already flitted away. It was already lunch time, just that much closer to the end of her day. At the end of her day she would go home and her mother would be there waiting for her. "You've gotten lost in your thoughts again?"

Isabella turned her head, just marginally, to glance at her boyfriend. "Phil is coming home today."

"That is wonderful Isabella." Michael smiled down at her with pleasantness, though his happiness with her never seemed to last long. Isabella wondered how pleased he would be to know that she was losing every fiber of interest in him as the days went on. "Shall we pay him a visit?"

"He's going to be getting settled in today." Rosalie said, from across the circular lunch table. Violet eyes rolled at what should have probably been plainly obvious "We should give him some time to get comfortable. We'll be able to visit tomorrow when we pick Isabella up for the dance."

Nobody thought to consult Isabella on this, but Isabella was used to not being included in the decision making processes. She gave no regard to her selfish friends or their phony acts of actually caring about Phil's entrance into recovery.

"Are you all exceptionally thrilled?" Alice proceeded to ask, her excitement brightening her eyes into an almost icy blue. There was maybe no one more thrilled about the upcoming dance than Mary-Alice, because the others didn't quite respond with an exceptional of enthusiasm. "Tomorrow will be a night of wonders."

"Will it?" Isabella wasn't quite so sure that she could fool herself into believing this.

"Why, of course it will." Michael moved to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth, Isabella accepted this but not without fighting the urge to cringe away from him. "We've got the entire night to make things magical."

"Our attire is being delivered to my house today. I wish that you could come try your dress on today Bella. I'm just dying to see how phenomenal you're going to look under such a delicate pallet of blue."

There was a silence from Isabella that the three people at the table did not like, she could not see how her reluctance to speak would offend them in any way though.

"Did you hear what Alice said to you Isabella?" Michael then asked, looking down at her with perturbed eyes.

"Oh, sorry." Isabella proceeded to say, though she wasn't quite so sure what she was sorry about in the first place. "I was getting lost inside of my thoughts again. I cannot stop thinking about Phil's return."

The girl's friends misunderstood Isabella's words the second that they'd left her mouth. The thoughts inside of her head were not of pleasantness. She did not see herself welcoming her unfortunate step-father home with warm arms, and she definitely didn't see to expect any form of warmth from her mother either. Phil's return was not wonderful news at all. She knew that it would only bring devastation and between herself and Edward the ties would only strain more.

The thought of her imaginary friend made Isabella's heart swell about three sizes in her chest. She still was not very much concerned with how it happened or why, but she knew that she had fallen in love with Edward. She was never more sure of anything in her life. Her hauntingly beautiful, broken friend was a danger of the very worse type. He was all of the love that she had ever known, and she still knew this to be very wrong.

He was not real but he was the realist something that she'd felt in a long time.

Isabella did her best to keep her thoughts away from Edward because she knew that once she gave the slightest thought of him it would give him the power that he needed to manifest inside of her world.

She couldn't have Edward here on the day that Phil was due to come home. She couldn't have him there. She did not approve of his tactics with hurting people for her benefit, and she had no idea what he'd be provoked to do if Phil or her mother did something to enrage him.

School was monotonous but Isabella appreciated this as a safe haven. When 2:25 rolled around she almost wished that she could rewind the time to beginning of this day, or perhaps to the ending of last night. There was a craving that was inside of her that she'd rather not choose to explore, but she'd felt it ever since she experienced the sensation of kissable lips.

"I'll call you later." Michael had promised, during a brief walk across the school parking lot. "I'm going to leave Alice's house around ten. Expect my call around eleven or something."

"Okay." She forced a smile onto her face, nodding her head but not really concerning herself with the news of a call that she knew she would not receive. See you later Mike."

"I love you Bella." A kiss was pressed against her cheek, singeing her skin with the dirt of lies. "I can't wait to go to the dance with you."

Her smile couldn't help but fall just a little. "Me either."

There was a type of silence that Isabella endured on her way home that she welcomed profusely, she had an extremity of doubts that her home would be ever close to silence with Renee and Phillip back. She tried not to hope that there would be no car parked inside of the driveway when she pulled onto her street because she knew that when she saw Renee's shiny BMW that she would probably all but deflate with an abundance of disappointment.

Isabella did not let go of her hope, and despite herself; she was disappointed.

The meander up the drive was even slower than the time it took her to actually withdraw herself from out of her vehicle. She was nerve-wrecked with an all too consuming fear. Upon the porch, she stopped to take a few deep breaths. The fresh inhalation of oxygen did nothing to dispel the unfavorable feelings that were conjuring inside of her. She only knew that her mother was waiting for her arrival when the front door swung open as soon as she were about to turn her door key the appropriate way in the keyhole.

"Isabella." Renee greeted, uniform in her stiff politeness. The Lady Renee was not the least bit excited to see her only child. The girl was only destruction in her eyes and had ruined everything that she'd ever established in life. "I've been waiting for you dear."

"I missed you mother. My prayers were filled with the best of your wishes." Isabella could feel her heart thudding against her chest, the scrutiny of her mother's gaze did not go unnoticed. She was not unaware that her mother still blamed her for what had happened to Phil. Isabella would gladly take the blame for it if that meant a chance for a reconciliation with her mother. In the end, it wouldn't have happened if Edward hadn't done it on her behalf.

"What about your step-father?" She inquired curiously, stepping aside to allow her daughter entry into the house. Isabella took a hesitant step. "Did you not think of his well-being at all?"

"Of course I did." Isabella rebutted, not quite defensively. The nerve that it took to get defensive with Edward was not the same kind of nerve that it took to get defensive with her mother. Isabella did not have the guts that it took to get defensive with her mother. She was still not so sure about which of the two personalities were frightening the most. "You both were a constancy in my thoughts."

"That is quite nice to hear." Renee replied softly, though there was an unhidden anger attached to the soft of those words. "Why don't you go greet your step-father. We've both missed you."

Isabella felt another tug of hesitation, the wrapping of a warm hand around her own startled her. Renee led the girl into the dining room where a wheel-chair bound Phillip Dwyer sat in front of the television. The fact that he was alerted of their entrance into the room but could not turn himself to greet them made Isabella's stomach fall onto the floor. She could not fathom how she'd let herself feel bad for this horrid character of a man at all; but that did not stop the guilt from flooding her completely.

"Oh, let me turn him around to face you." Renee said then, chipperly as if she weren't trying to prove a point. "You must realize that he cannot do these things himself any longer."

Isabella stayed where she was rooted and watched her mother. Phil did not wear and accusatory expression when he was turned to view her. Instead, a grimy smile pulled at the corner of his lips until the brown-haired girl could not help but to cringe from the sight of it.

"Hello Phillip." Isabella said, at the pleasure of her mother's satisfaction only. "How are you doing?"

"I'm living." He replied, unshy in the way that he viewed her with such an abundance of banality. "You should have visited more."

"My apologies." She presented him with the most forced of smiles. There was absolutely nothing pleasant about seeing him again. "I can think of no way to express my remorse. I kept you and my mother inside of my thoughts entirely."

Phillip did not regard her with the contempt that her mother was adamant on holding. This fact did not make the girl any more comforted. She would rather have Phil hating her than her mother. She did not actually value Phil's opinion.

"Why don't you go start on your homework Isabella?" Renee suggested, locking the dark of her irises onto her daughter's tortured brown orbs. "I will come upstairs to get you when dinner has arrived. I ordered from the restaurant next to the police station. It should be here in under thirty minutes."

"Okay." The girl agreed, but only because disagreeing with her mother would only do good to make matters worse. The girl was actually quite relieved that her mother had instructed her to her room. The real torture would have been being forced to sit in the livingroom with her paralyzed step father. "I'll be up in my room if you need me for anything."

The girl went up to her room disregarding the thought of actually starting on her homework. She would get that done when she had the desire to. For right now she thought that catching up with the reading of her journal would be a good idea. She had been too occupied with the thought of her mother and step-father being home that she hadn't gotten the chance to read anything today. She took a comfortable seat on her bed and decided to skip ahead a few journals. She'd wanted to read something of the year when she'd lost her memory. She would go back to where she left off in the other journal later.

* * *

><p><strong>September 13, 1998 : Today is my birthday<strong>

_I am Isabella Swan, today I turned eleven years old._

_My mother baked me a strawberry cake, with strawberry icing, and eleven frosted pink candles. I hate the color pink but my mother does not know that. I will never tell her either because I know that pink is her absolute favorite color._

_I did not have a lot of friends that she could invite to the small gathering that she planned in the backyard. A few people from my classroom came and my mother forced a few of her girlfriends to bring their children. The kids didn't really come for me. I don't let myself be fooled for a second. They all came because their mothers made them and because they wanted to get one of the goody bags that my mother was bribing people with._

_My mother invited Jake to the party. It was one of the only times that I had seen him outside of his office. _

_"They are watching you Bella." Edward had said, as he watched me coloring inside of the new coloring book that Mrs. Stanley had purchased for me. "They are trying to see if you're talking to me."_

_I raised my head and glanced across the lawn to locate my mother and my doctor. The two of them were seated in the chairs around the patio, conversing under the shade of umbrella that was connected to the table. It was early in September so it wasn't all that sunny. I believed them to be making an attempt at discretion. They were not doing a very good job of it however._

_Jake flashed me a smile when he saw that I was looking their way, but I could see that his smile was loaded with a hundred different types of things._

_"What are they talking about now?" I asked curiously, trying not to appear as if I were talking to someone. The more they witnessed my relationship with Edward the more frequently ' my appointments with Jake were scheduled. "Are they still discussing me?"_

_"Of course." Edward said, quite sardonically in fact. "What else would those two possibly be talking about?"_

_"Well, what are they saying?" I prompted, knowing that Edward could hear them just as clearly from across the lawn as I could hear him from right in front of me._

_"Jake is telling your mom of a treatment that he thinks might work for you." I watched a frown fall onto Edward's face at once. "And your mother is all too willing to give this particular treatment a try."_

_"What is the treatment supposed to do? Fix my brain of their absurdities." I had a feeling that I would not like whatever treatment that was currently being planned for me. It did not sound pleasant at all._

_"If you had any to begin with." He snapped, shaking his head in a protective disapproval. "Your mom should be the one undergoing a treatment."_

_"What is the name of this said treatment?" _

_Edward's eyes narrowed, but only slightly. "Electroshock therapy. Jake said that it..._

* * *

><p>"Isabella."<p>

It took just the mere sound of The Lady Renee's voice to bring the girl out of the trance that her reading had gotten her in. The girl was startled still by the sudden intrusion of the voice, even more startled by the look that she saw on her mother's face.

"The dinner is here." The girl was shocked that her mother had not mentioned the journal, or even more shocked that she had not yet noticed the journal. Isabella tried her best to place the book under the protection of her blanket without drawing the attention of her mother. She also hoped that her mother would not take note of the pile of journals that she'd pushed only barely under her bed. She could not deal with the fear of what Renee's reaction would be. "Did you not hear what I'd said?"

"Oh, yes mother." Isabella nodded her head, offering her mother a smile that she hoped did not appear to be suspicious. "I will be down in a second."

"What have you been doing here while we were away? Your room is a mess. This is not proper for a young lady." Renee peered around the cubicle, searching for every sign of imperfection that she could find to her disapproval. This added to Isabella's anxiety. She prayed that her mother would not notice anything that she'd snagged from out of the closet that her mother had locked her out of for so many years. "You need to do something about the state of this room immediately."

"Of course. I will fix it after dinner."

"I shouldn't have to tell you these things." The Lady Renee said sternly, she eyed her daughter very closely. "Your incompetence will not be accepted Isabella."

"I apologize." The girl then proceeded to say, wanting her mother to just leave her room already.

"Your dinner can wait. Fix the room before you come down." The girl watched her mother turn her back. It was only then that she allowed herself the exhalation of the deep breath she'd been holding. She counted her mother's footsteps as they neared closer to the exit which was her doorway.

Her heart stopped almost completely when her mother's trek came to a stop. She had to wonder what had possessed her mother to turn back around and eye her so threateningly.

"What is it mother?" She prompted to ask, confused as to why her mother's face had changed from a delicate pale into the harshest of reds. "Did I do something else wrong?"

Isabella eyes sought out her mother's for an understanding that she did not receive, only realizing that her mother's stormy gaze had completely bypassed her own. The girl directed her own line of view to follow the place that had her mother's eyes glued and stuck. The sight of a teddy bear gave the brown-haired girl all of the understanding that she needed.

Fear encompassed her entire body.

"What the hell is that thing doing up here?" The Lady Renee seethed, shooting daggers at her daughter. "And how in the world did you get into that closet?"

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry about the extensive wait for the update.<strong>

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	9. My World

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><p><strong>PARACOSM<strong>

**CHAPTER 9 :**

**MY WORLD**

It only took the pallid skinned girl an instance to view the furious look on her mother's face and feel all of the blood leak out of her body in fear. There was only one instance and that instance was eternity.

Isabella was rooted as still as the thumping in her chest had become. She was completely stutter shook with apprehension. She could only imagine the endless possibilities of punishments that she could be on the end of receiving for proving herself to be a disobedient child. Her mother's dulling brown eyes were locking onto hers with no intentions of dropping the gaze. The Lady Renee wanted to override every other emotion that her daughter had consented to harbor within herself. The women wanted her daughter to be swallowed with distress while in her presence.

Renee was at a lost for a moment. She had no idea what could have driven the harrowing girl into a curiosity overload. She had gone so long without looking into that ridiculous storage room. What had been her point in venturing so suddenly? She dreaded to think about the absurd demons that must have possessed her by now. The Lady had not gone through all of that trouble to have it backfired on her. She would not be made a mockery of any longer.

"Did you not hear me ask you a question?" Her voice was melting ice, hardly frozen but dripping with malice of the worst sorts. Renee trekked towards Isabella's canopy bed, refusing to stop until she was stationed directly in front of the trembling teenager. "Why are you such a disobedient, little girl?"

"I apologize mother." Isabella thought to display her effort at remorse. The more sensible side of her did not think to question her mother as to why such terrible secrets were meant to be kept from her. She should have been curious about the motives behind Renee's years of lies. She was too enthralled with intimidation at the moment however.

Renee looked at the girl with no less dander than before, "I hope that I was not being unclear Isabella. I want to know how you were able to break into that closet in the basement."

"Oh, I did not break into it. I swear to that mother." Isabella jumped at the chance to defend herself, believing that her sentencing would be a lot less gruesome if she made that point of emphasis aware. "I am guessing that you forgot to lock it in your hurry to leave."

"And you thought it was okay to saunter into there without permission?"

"I had not been aware of what all of the fuss was about." Isabella took a brave chance, glancing up at her mother with brownie eyes. She thought that she saw a little bit of embarrassment underneath her mother's stern expression somewhere but she could not be too sure. She was only brave enough to share a gaze with The Lady for a couple of short seconds. "It only appeared to be a storage room at first glance."

Renee's hands seized her hips in irritation. It did not matter what the girl had thought. She knew the rules of that particular room had been established inside of this household since she'd been a child, and Renee was never put out by anything more than someone who did not mind her rules.

"What made you think that it was even slightly appropriate to retrieve those ghastly things? Did you not know that they were locked away from your consciousness for a reason?"

"I did not know anything." Isabella admitted quietly, hoping that this might appease her mother in the slightest of ways. "I saw that the journals belonged to me. I thought that they would do good to restore my memory."

"Perhaps, you could not recall the events in those journals for a reason." Renee viewed the girl pointedly, dreading to find out just how far she had indulged into those childish accounts of the truth. "I was doing you a favor. I suppose you cannot grasp that notion. You would not know kindness if it bit you on your backside. You are such a disappointing girl Isabella."

"Kindness?" The girl repeated wondrously, a speck of anger that had become too strong in its form settled into the frontal lobe of her psyche. She was given a second's worth of confidence that she would regret after it was expended. "And you would pretend to know the concept of kindness? Yet you saw it fit to hide away the facets of abuse that you put me through during all of those years of youthfulness. I asked you about my childhood so many times and you'd never once mentioned any of the events that were recorded inside of those journals. I trusted you with fiber in my body. I should have listened to Edward from the beginning."

The Lady Renee did not quite have the self control that she represented whenever she was to be a docile part of society. Outside of her home, she was leveled with poise, class, and composure that other women wished to have. Inside of her own home, she was a ticking time bomb. But no one would ever be aware of that fact because Renee knew just when to smile at them pleasantly and offer them compliments.

The next occurrence was peculiar for both of the ladies. Renee was startled senseless by the mentioning of the troublesome name that had not been spoken of in years. To hear it said so passionately ignited something hot inside of the women's body. She grabbed the harrowing girl with the strength of years worth of resentment, swung the weightless body off of the bed, and watched gleefully as she glided some ways across the floor.

Isabella landed with a mild thud, landing on her arm in such an unpleasant way. She looked up at her mother with widening eyes and remembered why she had always feared the women so severely.

Renee stormed over to the despondent girl, her itching fingers curled around the smoothness of her daughter's pale neck like a dog's collar. She tightened her grip around Isabella's throat. Not nearly tight enough to choke her but just restricting enough to cause discomfort where it was needed.

"Now, listen to me and listen closely." Isabella felt herself beginning to submerge within the dark pools of her mother's eyes, she would undoubtedly drown if she could not find a way to look away soon. "I am going to gather up every single one of these journals and I am going to set them ablaze. You are going to be a respectful young lady and tend to your duties as a daughter. I do not want to hear anymore nonsensical chatter about this Edward character or whatever other absurdities that could have filled your mind while I was away. Do we have an understanding Isabella? I will not hesitate to make myself more clear."

The girl could only nod her head marginally, she had not felt the strength of her mother's choke hold in a while. She was too shocked, too weak, and much too frightened to make any sudden movements.

"And lets not bring the topic of trust back up any longer." The women seethed, face so close to her daughter's that she almost thought she was peering into a mirror of the past. She could effortlessly remember a time when she had been exactly as lovely as her child if not lovelier. A time when men would not have overlooked her so quickly. She could not find it inside of herself to admit the fact of jealousy. She was much too proud for anything like that. "I learned to stop trusting people when I found out that my own daughter was fucking my husband."

When Renee released the girl, she'd pushed her away in disgust. The forcefulness of Renee's action caused Isabella to fall back against her hand-carved, cherry-wood dresser but the girl did not hurt herself severely. She watched The Lady Renee take a pillow case and pack up all of her journals inside of it. Every fiber in her body willed her to fight for the safety of the forsaken mysteries but she would not dare oppose her mother again.

"You can skip dinner tonight." Renee would say upon her untimely exit. She did not even offer her daughter a departing glance. "I can hardly bear to look at your face."

Isabella curled up into herself with defeat. She had been becoming so close to figuring things out. The thought of being placed right back at square one was horribly discouraging. The things her mother had said to her had to possibly be what stunned her confidence the most. She could not help but feel grimy and broken.

"You're here." The girl would speak softly, she could feel a familiar presence confined within the room with her. She had not exactly called for his company and she was a bit perturbed by his ability to manifest without first a word of her order. That was not to say that she had not wanted to be engulfed with his presence. That was something she always wanted and she wanted it immensely. "How did you get here?"

She held her head up to see him leaning against her bedroom door, arms crossed over his chest in defiance. He was not wearing an expression of supreme warmth. She was aware that he was unhappy. She did not fail to realize how the tarnished frown he wore so strongly did absolutely nothing to diminish his youthful attractiveness.

"I am getting stronger." He offered that to her evenly, though he had made it a point to himself to be more vague with her about certain things. "I have found the secret."

"The secret to what?" She asked curiously, regarding him with weary eyes.

"To crossing between realms. All I need is for you to focus an ounce of your attention towards the thought of me." He was quite smug in his realization. There was no way that she could possibly banish him. Not that she should ever want to. He was only taking safety precautions however. "I can feel you rattling my bones when I am in the Forge of Dreams. When you think of me I become exhumed with light, warmth, and everything else that is pleasant. It gives me enough energy to cross the rifts without you having to beckon me first."

"And you are proud of yourself because of this fact?" She allowed herself to smile at him warmly, there was love in every piece of her. "You do know that you're cheating by doing that."

"It is not so much as cheating as it is finding loopholes in the limits that have been set for me." He looked over her with a lightness that illuminated the greenery of his eyes. He returned her smile of love but did not forget the reason that he had come to her so suddenly. He decided that he would try to wait for her to bring it up willingly. He had at least six years worth of patience by now. Waiting for her was just one of his many expertise.

"Would you come sit beside me?" She wondered, patting the spot on the floor that was to her left. "I have missed you while you were away."

"I know." He replied with a new quietness, pushing himself away from the door fluidly. He could almost not feel himself as he moved towards her. Walking was weightlessness to him. Isabella noticed the way that his grace was so superb it caused him to glide rather than step. "Though, not nearly as much as I missed you. I am sure."

He sat beside her and the two of them shared a moment.

She reached her hand up to run her fingers along the planes of his impossibly handsome face. She trailed lightning over his cheekbones, over the perimeter of his sharp jaw, and down to his sinuous neck. He did not allow his eyes to shut this time. He permitted himself to watch the awe spread across her face at the sight of him.

A gut-wrenching hatred fell into the depth of his stomach, producing a nauseous sensation that would never expel vomit. Poisonous butterflies fluttered against his rib cage. Their point was evident. He was in love with the beauty before him and he was not clever enough to thwart the beastly spell that she had over him.

"I would like to give you a kiss. What would you say to that?" Isabella said at once, more softly than she had ever spoken before. She could not stop herself either, though it was almost like she was not in control of her own actions anymore. So she couldn't have put an end to this confusion even if she'd wanted to. The imaginary boy had her encapsulated in every way possible. Her lips had been trembling to meet up with his again. "Would you be kind enough to accept my gift?"

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards, into a forlorn smile of some sorts. "I would say that I am much too struck by you to decline such an offer."

A surge of heat crashed into her. His gentle words forced her forward but he was just as still as he had been the night before. Her lips pressed zeal into his, parting only slightly to accept his kiss between her own. She did not move quite so timidly as she had done before but there was not much more confidence to her actions either. She was still exploring this sensation. It was a wondrous thing that neither teenager could possibly understand. They were both aware that one of them were real and the other one was only there through the wildness of the real one's imagination. If someone were to walk into the room it would appear that Isabella Swan was kissing air.

His hand came up to cup her face affectionately. He had never thought to take much care with anything before but Isabella was his delicacy. Her fingers entangled in the messy tendrils strewn about his bronzed head and he was pulled exceptionally closer to her. Edward Masen only allowed her excitement to go so far. There was still an inkling of decision making abilities left inside of his clouded brain. He'd yanked away from her almost instantaneously when he felt the moist of her tongue sliding against his bottom lip. He did not know how to handle such a feeling. He was sure that her body-heat had singed him somehow.

"I apologize." Isabella said softly, pressing her lips together to stop them from tingling. She glanced at her friend and was not surprised by what she saw there.

He was calm and collected, hiding the truth of his feelings beneath a well-placed facade. She could not see through him as easily as he could see through her. She was like glass to him. He was like a ruddy mirror to her. She could only see herself in him at the moment.

"What are you apologizing for specifically?" He had a way of pulling things out of Isabella without her realizing it so suddenly.

"I am sorry for everything. I am sorry for not believing you, for allowing myself to forget you, for treating you with contempt at times, for taking advantage of your kindness, and for still not being able to stand up to those who mean me harm."

Edward was silent for a moment, taking in all of the things that she said. He decided not to dwell on any of those things individually yet and to take her remorse as a whole. She was visibly upset and he did not like to view her in this way. It made his stomach twist into terrible knots. "You should know that I forgive you for everything and I will continue to forgive you no matter what."

Isabella looked down, only slightly relieved at what she'd already known. "My mother took the journals Edward."

"I know." He replied, trying not to reveal that he'd been listening to The Lady Renee's infuriated thoughts since he'd arrived. He'd known exactly what had transpired between the mother and the daughter. It was taking everything that he had not to go retaliate against the violence that Renee had shown to his creator. "What would you like to do about it?"

"What do you mean?" Isabella did not pretend that she had not heard the dangerous undertone that had attached itself to Edward's words. She could not have him harming her mother. No matter what the lady did to her she would not stop pledging allegiance to her. The brown-eyed girl knew that that fact would upset her friend further.

"I can easily retrieve the journals from out of her possession." Edward's gaze settled onto Isabella's apprehension. He still could not figure out why his creator gave any regards to what happened to her pitiful excuse for a mother. The only thing that Renee had ever done in her lifetime that Edward appreciated was giving birth to Isabella. But that was about the only redeemable act she'd ever participated in. "She plans to put fire to them at midnight."

"That might not be a very good idea." The girl commented, knowing that her mother would come back to her in brute accusation. She did not want to further the tension between them. She did not want to give Edward any excuses to act on her behalf. "There must be some other way to figure these things out."

"Why must you always do everything with extreme difficulty?"

"Why are you only happy when things go exactly the way you want them to go?" Isabella rebutted sternly, frowning a little at frustration that had less to do with him and more to do with the circumstances that she was surrounded in. "Life is not always about getting what you want."

Edward's face contorted into a scowl of ire. Isabella noticed that she had said something terribly offensive to him. The imaginary boy looked back at her, gritting his teeth until Isabella was sure they would grind away into nothingness. Then, the boy relented, shaking his head and sighing greatly.

"Of course." He said, though that was not what he'd originally been wanting to say. "My life is about always getting '_you'_ what _'you'_ want. So may I ask, do you want anything at all?"

"I want you to promise to leave Renee out of this." That was what she said and the word choice was purposeful on her part. "And I want to talk to Doctor Cullen personally and maybe even Doctor Jake."

She had disappointed him, or at least that was what she could conclude from the expression that he now wore on his face. She hated just how temperamental he was. He could be loving towards her one second and then impossibly aloof the next. He was so easily disturbed. His moods could plummet at the murmur of a word he did not like.

Isabella just did not understand the inner workings of her friend. She did not know just how intensely he loved her and just how intensely he hated her. She did not understand that both of the emotions were rooted so deeply inside of him that sometimes it was hard for him to distinguish the two.

"Unlike some people, I resolve not to make promises that I cannot keep."

His spite stung her a bit but she'd felt like she deserved it. She would let her mother have her way with things. The journals could tarnish but that would not make Isabella give up. She would also let Edward think less of her. The stubborn girl had at least the idea of a plan. She could only hope that it would work out the way she desired so.

**~~~~PARACOSM**

The Saturday morning was a relief. Isabella got to rest her brown eyes a little longer than she was usually permitted. Her mother and Phil had left her alone to attend Phil's physical therapy session. When the blinding sunlight started to stream its way into her room through the large bay window, she was first startled by the feeling of something warm on her cheek. She was awakened when the light seemed to engulf her whole.

There was a handsome boy with sad features sitting in her windowsill. He had not left her sight last night. It was refreshing to wake up to a picture so lovely.

"Good morning." She said with a start, covers were lifted off of her and she proceeded to make her way towards the boy. His eyes did not move from their view outside of the window. "Has the sun kissed you alive yet?"

The boy was slow to turn his attention onto her. Isabella was curious as to what he had been watching. She looked towards the direction that had captivated him so. Outside she saw a little, blond-haired child sitting across the street. She appeared to be alone but the way she laughed so heartily and spoke to the invisible space beside her indicated that she was actually not without company.

Isabella felt a bit of nostalgia creep its way into her chipper mood. It all but dissipated when she felt a cool hand wrap around her wrist. She was pulled down onto the lap of her beloved companion and he was looking at her seriously.

"The sun has given me a message." He said, so softly. So hauntingly. Isabella would swoon at the sound of his voice. "It has been too busy to deliver its kisses this morning. It would like for you to take the honors instead."

She softened into every part of him, pressing love against his entirety in the form of a kiss. He was not still this time. He was alive and sad and hating himself more than ever. She was surprised at his firm, at the way her lips were forced to mold in order to follow the direction of his own. He kissed her more passionately than she had ever been kissed before. The breath was knocked right from out of her lungs and she feared that she would never quite breathe the same. He kissed purpose into her life.

"There is something that I've wanted to tell you about." He said, after pecking her lips softly. One more chaste reminder that the two could never be together the right way. He shut those instances out of his mind.

"What is it?" She asked, disoriented from the drug he had dispensed inside of her so personally. She could not focus so greatly.

"Have you ever heard of the word Paracosm?" He looked her over, assessed the furrowing of her mahogany brows. There was an expression on her face that gave him the answer he'd been looking for. "Have you ever known it as a place?"

"I don't think that I have." She confessed, wondering if perhaps it was something she should have been surely aware of. She looked up at the boyish face of the best creation she would have ever proudly called her own. He stared back at her without the slightest change in his expression. She could not shake the feeling that something was troubling him. "Why don't you tell me about it?"

"There are some types of people. The ones that let their imaginations go haywire. They find themselves entranced inside of intricate dreams at times, or they often drift away into magical places that relatively do not exist. Sometimes these people imagine so intensively that they find their way into The Forge of Dreams."

"That sounds rather unlikely." She could not see how a living person could cross between the realms of reality into an imaginary world.

"That does not mean it is not possible." Edward said lightly, tilting his head to the side to watch her speculatively. "Back at the Forge, we call those people The Dreamers. But usually those people are young children who really have no idea about what is real and what is imaginary."

"So, are you saying that I would not be able to visit?" Isabella asked inquisitively, liking the idea of penetrating the barriers between the two separate worlds.

"That is one of the things I am not so sure about." His green eyes blazed with honesty, triumphantly she could see his devotion through those dark irises. She wanted to reach out and caress his features but she controlled herself for now.

"What else are you not sure about?"

"Whether or not I want you to try and cross the realms." He said, looking at her from under a deep eyelash forest. The crook of his mouth twitched lightly. He could tell that she was a little irritated by this. Why did it matter if he wanted her to or not?

"Why wouldn't you want me to see your world?" She could only imagine the wonders and glee that a place like The Forge of Dreams could harbor. There were so many existences behind the fact of what modern people thought existed. There were so many much deeper and magical things to comprehend and she knew that this was why those things were not truly real. "The thought of being in a place like that is among my biggest desires. I would even probably favor it more than I did my own world."

"That is exactly the problem." The boy nodded his bronzed head, scraggly tresses fell freely into his face. Isabella took it upon herself to sift her fingers through those soft tresses. She tamed them marginally before they fell back to where they apparently longed to be. "The Dreamers start to get reality and paracosm mixed up. They like the other realm so much that they forget it isn't real. They get stuck for some time."

"What would be the consequences of being stuck?" She could not see how being trapped in a magical land would be anything but satisfying.

"To waste away one's life in a place that was purely fictional...would be consequence enough." Edward's sadness was only visible on his face for a couple of seconds before he wiped the expression away completely. "Any one of us imaginary friends would give anything to be real and to be able to live a promising life away from imaginations."

"Some real people would give anything to be like you and to be able to live in a place like that forever."

He did not respond immediately. It took him some time to think about what he would have liked to say to that. There were so many variations that he could not easily make up his mind. Her foul statement had offended him, angered him, saddened him, and done every thing that is unpleasant to him. "You don't know what you are saying."

She decided not to make him elaborate more on what he'd meant. She'd only wanted him to tell her how she was supposed to go about visiting this place.

"I would like to visit." She said confidently, though the expression that he gave her kindly lessened that confidence. "If only for a short while."

"Then you only have to do three things, Pretty Girl." He replied at her whim, promising himself that if she managed to be successful then he would not let her forget where she came from and where she belonged. "You have to want it, believe it, and imagine."

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><p><strong>That was Chapter Nine. <strong>

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	10. Nightmares

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><p><strong>PARACOSM<strong>

**CHAPTER 10:**

**NIGHTMARES**

"What exactly should I be trying to imagine?" Isabella Swan queried with great interest. She looked over at her imaginary friend with expectancy. It was he who always cleverly had the answers to her unremitting questions.

"You are mistaken already." He replied, quite patiently at that. His voice was soft with instruction. He did not know much about The Dreamers and what limited or aided their ability in spiritual travel. He had been banished for most of his existence so he had never even seen a dreamer through that of his own perception. He had only heard fanatical stories by others. The little he did know was only subjective. Still, he would offer his help in the best way he possibly could. "You should not be _"trying"_ at all. What is in your imagination has been there for years and it will remain there for many more to come. You have to grab a hold of those things and run away with them."

"I apologize if I seem dull." She liked the amusement that was to display itself across his features. "But how do I grab hold onto something that is incredibly intangible?"

"You have to use your heart, Precious Bella." He offered her a chilling smile, one that was so handsome she thought it would stun her into stillness. "Pull those things that you desire from within your soul. Imagine them taking shape. Locate their fragrances and brand the aroma into your psyche. Imagine running your fingers along it and memorize the texture. Will yourself to become apart of those things, so indistinguishable that there is no more Bella or no more imagination. There is just one concept. A concept where you have become all of your imaginations and more. Close your eyes as you do this and when you reopen them...you shall be inside a place of your wildest desires."

Isabella allowed her eye-lids to fall shut, obscuring her vision of the world she wanted to get away from so badly. Her bones trembled within her, with excitement of what wonderful things were to come. She envisioned the Forge of Dreams as she had always done.

It always started out as a forest for her. Simple, green disclosure. There would live trees that towered higher than even the heavens could reach. The earthy smell of beginnings and endings would latch onto every strand of moss, every blade of grass, and every wild-growing flower that had ever existed. It would be warm. The sun would shine brightly, penetrate between the shades of leafy trees. Magnificent glowing light would lead the way down a paved dirt trail. Small, ever-clear ponds and little inhabitants minded their own business and Isabella would walk down the trail. She would always be on her way towards something or maybe someone in particular. She could almost feel them waiting for her at the end of the enchanted forest, paying less attention to the melodic coos that the family of winged critters greeted them with and more to her amazement of everything that was beautifully in sight.

Isabella knew that this person was Edward.

She could almost see his his face on the outskirts of a boundary that transitioned the hearty forest into a blossoming meadow. She could almost see his hand stretched out towards her, waiting fingers eager to wrap around her own and introduce her to his world. She wanted to grab onto his comfort so badly.

"Isabella Swan!" The girl was at once, disturbed out of her exquisite reveries. The sound of her name being yelled from the first floor's entryway pulled her concentration right from out of her slippery grasp.

Bella only had to take one look at Edward's face to tell that he was not pleased. She did not know if he was upset because she was not able to make it to The Forge of Dreams or if he was fuming over the unwelcome company that had found their way into her home so abruptly. Either way Isabella was sure that she could not pacify him correctly.

"Your friends have arrived right on time." The boy spat begrudgingly, the warmth of his emerald greens froze over in the slightest of seconds. She knew well by now just how much Edward loathed her mates from school. The thought of being put in such an uncompromising position startled her. "They are to take you to a dance tonight."

Isabella only had the appropriate time left to let out a small sigh of frustration, before she could hear the sound of excited footsteps barreling up the wooden staircase.

"I would think that they'd be more cautious travelling up the staircase after the unfortunate case that Phil caught." Something dark gleamed behind the smile he showed to her. She saw it flash across his face in an instant.

Isabella reacted impatiently, grabbing his face between her hands without much care. It was not she that was making him look at her. He could have surely stopped her maneuvers. He only went along with them because he was slightly interested in what she had to say for herself. "Behave yourself Edward. I have no need to repeat myself."

"Don't you dare patronize me, Little girl." He seethed quietly, swiping her hands away. His arms crossed over his chest indignantly. "We both know that I shall do whatever I want."

Isabella did not have the opportunity to respond to his unkindliness. When Edward was upset he could not read what Isabella wanted from him and nor did he care. He only knew what he wanted, that was all that importantly mattered, and that was when he was most in touch with his own feelings.

"Isabella." Both teenagers turned their attention onto Alice Brandon's unwelcome ignition of stupor, but only one of the teenagers would be recognized. The short, brunette held up a very priceless item to display. It shimmered blue brilliance under the illumination of Bella's bedroom light. "You will be Michael's princess today. Your dress is a thousand diamonds of loveliness."

The imaginary boy released a bitter chuckle. Isabella almost turned to the sound of it. There was something impossibly saddening within the tone and something clenched inside of her to know that she was the cause of it. "And here I thought, that you were to be my princess Bella."

"Did you forget that we were coming?" Rosalie Hale spoke, perfection down to the fluency of her voice. She viewed her friend with a certain curiosity that flickered brightness over her violet eyes. Isabella had in fact forgotten about the dance. She had pushed it into the furthest depths of her mind.

"How could I forget?" She said instead, offering the two beauties a slow smile. "But is it not exceptionally early to start getting ready for tonight's festivities?"

Her two oblivious friends glanced at each other with great humor before they both laughed at what appeared to be Isabella's foolishness. Things like this were not to be taken lightly. They would do all that they could to present flawlessness to Mike Newton tonight. Isabella had been so withdrawn and slovenly towards her obligation as a girlfriend lately. It would bigger their heads to know that they were the cause of rekindled flames. They were only doing the girl a favor.

Isabella was not consulted with this idea. Her opinions were not to be considered, probably because they did not mean much in the concern of these two girls. She was their puppet to do with what they pleased. It had always been that way and it would stay that way. Isabella had never complained, though they were aware of her discomfort at times. If she did not speak up they saw no need to stop their practices.

"Look at what we purchased for you." Rosalie ignored Bella's previous question, shoving a shopping bag into her hands instead. She felt that the girl should have been grateful enough that they came to help her at all. "Mary-Alice picked it out for you. It was especially thought from our hearts."

Isabella thought it trite but peered into the bag anyway. She felt a lush heat rushing throughout her face upon realizing what had been placed inside of the bag. She was almost too embarrassed to look back at Edward and gauge his reaction. Surely he knew what was in the bag. He was a mind reader after all.

"I do admit that it is daring." Alice nodded her charcoal-colored head, the expression on her face was earnest enough. "I would have my own qualms about wearing it, but I am sure that Mike would appreciate it once he gets that dress off of you."

"This is completely absurd." Edward stated angrily, narrowed eyes directed onto the shorter of the three girls. He knew that he had no right to feel jealousy in that type of way. There was nothing more that he could offer Isabella that any real man could not. He could not help the nagging possession that he'd written over her however. His name was tattooed all across her heart and he could not bear the thought of anyone else touching his creator so intimately. He would almost lose his temper at the thought of it.

Isabella watched her imaginary friend stand to his feet. He was entirely silent with his movements, so lithe that no one else in the room noticed the slight difference inside of the atmosphere. She could tell that he was upset. The glare on his face spoke it all. She would not admit that she found his envy intriguing. She wanted to announce to Edward that she did not desire any part of Mike that he was willing to offer her, but she was sure that he was already quite aware of that.

Edward did not look back at Isabella or utter another word. He moved past the two teenager girls in something like a blur. Isabella noted the way that they both visibly shuttered. Edward did leave a trail of cool air behind him. He was out of the open door and disappearing into other parts of the house before she had a chance to say anything.

"Is this all really necessary?"

"Just to make the night more thrilling." Rosalie answered, lifting an arched eyebrow at Isabella's total lack of excitement. "We thought that you'd enjoy a surprise."

Isabella did not have a pleasant response to that and so she thought to say nothing at all would be best. The next couple of hours went on that way. Alice and Rosalie turned Isabella into the exact replicas of their favorite barbie dolls. They abused her but not in the same way that Phil had.

Most girls enjoyed getting ready for special occasions with their friends, but most girls also did not quite suffer the same dilemma as Isabella did. Her friends were not actually her friends. They were dictators who thought they should be able to control things in her life. Every time a curl was tossed in her head Isabella felt contempt at their beliefs that they were rendering her acceptable. Could she not be acceptable inside of her own skin?

Isabella thought that if she couldn't then she would not want to be accepted anyway. She knew that there was one person who would accept her no matter what.

Two of the three teenage girls were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Pedicures, manicures, and facials were among the things superficial people relished in life. By the time five had rolled around the trio were dressed and made-up into magnificence.

Rosalie Hale would wear a daring dress. To stand out among the faceless crowd was entirely her aim. She was looking to turn heads with the red silhouette that hugged the gentleness of her curves so nicely. She was cat-eyed and bombshell curled all over.

Alice Brandon was the shortest of the trio. Her reason for avoiding floor-length dresses was not the same as Rosalie's. She was not aiming to catch more eyes than usual. She just simply did not want to be swallowed in a mass of fabric. She had a sweetheart dress which stopped directly above her knees but draped longer in the back. The skirt of the dress was black satin and the top was embellished with jewels.

Isabella Swan was dressed in a regal-blue mermaid gown. Ruching was the main idea of this attire, deliberately frilled to fit the contours of her hips. Blue duchesse satin flowed down towards the wooden floorboards in an expensive waterfall of silk and rayon. She was frosty-eyed, lined in a startling electric blue, and her lips were painted the vivacious color of blood. She could say that she felt pretty but that fact had not been true until she spotted Edward standing inside of the doorway again.

His eyes completely bypassed Rosalie and Alice. It was as if he could not see that they existed. The way he looked at Isabella made her feel like the other two girls were oddly imaginary and that she was the only real thing that Edward had ever seen. There was an expression on his face that said all that he had ever wanted to say to her. Isabella could feel herself beginning to blush and that was enough to bring about a small smile to Edward's face.

"I think I just heard a car pull into the driveway." Rosalie announced, smiling whiteness over the room. "Your mother must be home Bella. She is going to cry when she sees how amazing you look."

Isabella did not doubt the fact. The Lady Renee was a great sentimentalist whenever their were others around to observe her. Upholding an image was ever so important to her. Isabella could not figure out why the lady cared of other people's opinions so greatly. To know why that fact was she supposed that she would have to delve into the Lady Renee's troubled childhood.

"Isabella!" She heard the excited chimes of her mother's voice and looked up to see warmth everywhere on the lady. It was as if Isabella had completely thought up everything which had transpired between the two of them last night. There appeared to be no traces of bitterness left within the woman. Isabella was sure that it was still there but Renee had tucked it well beneath the many layers that made up her personality. "You are absolutely stunning dear."

"Thank you Mother." Isabella would reply, as polite as any respectful daughter was to their mother. "It is all due to Alice and Rosalie."

"What time does the dance begin?" The Lady Renee asked curiously, appraising everything that was attractive to her eyes. She would only allow a brief moment of nostalgia to sit with her. She did used to be ever so beautiful. "Should your ride be arriving soon or no?"

"The dance will begin at six." Alice Brandon answered gingerly, twirling in her dress to create a halo of black silk around herself. "Michael should be on his way with the boys. His mother let him drive the Aston Martin. We will arrive and people will fall in love with the mere thought of us."

"How impossibly exciting." Renee replied happily, though there was a pinch of something sad inside of her. She stepped towards her daughter and offered her a brilliant smile. "Are you very much excited?"

"As excited as I'll ever be, I suppose." The girl did not look at her mother. She looked through her mother and she saw the same women from last night's ordeals. "I'm not so sure this night will be all that it's been hyped up to be."

"Why would you say such a thing?" The lady wondered, watching her daughter with disapproving eyes. The girl seemed to never be satisfied with anything. The only something she'd ever appreciated was imaginary and Renee rather not dwell upon that.

Isabella looked at her mother slightly, but focused most of her attention on the sight that was behind her. Her eyes bypassed the two excited girls but decided to land on the boy that everyone else was unaware of. He smiled at her and in an instant she smiled back. "Because Edward told me it wouldn't be."

The women was aghast with displeasure, she did well to hide that fact. She only eyed Isabella sternly and was quite surprised to find that the girl did not cower. It came to her train of thought that Isabella was beginning to change again, taking influence from the imaginary friend of her nightmares. She made a promise to herself that she would not let the insanity get out of control like it had done last time. She would see to it being fixed immediately.

Meanwhile, the bronzed-haired boy was making promises of his own. There was no way he would let Renee Swan come in between him and Isabella a second time. The fact was completely clear to him. His dear Isabella would never step up to the plate to take control of her life or to steer herself in the right direction. She was just too easily resigned but there was only room for one dominating figure inside of Isabella's life, and Edward Masen would make sure that that person was not The Lady Renee.

**~~~~PARACOSM**

Inside of a decorated auditorium, imitations of a winter wonderland flowed across the room. Elegantly dressed teenagers took themselves in pairs to dance across the room in blissful arrogance. The way Mike Newton and Isabella Swan held onto each other, as they swayed to the sound of Christmas tunes, would indicate that there was something especially endearing between the two of them. That could not have been more untrue.

They both were only with each other because of obligation. Mike's eyes were not paying attention to the beautiful dress that his girl friend wore, although he made an effort to appreciate the garment in front of the girl's mother and friends. His eyes were glued onto something that was behind Isabella's back. Jessica Stanley was laundering near the beverage table, a plastic cup of punch up to her sultry lips, and piercing blue eyes locked onto his.

He was only devoting his time to Isabella because she was ultimately the better choice of the two girls. While Jessica Stanley had made a reputation for herself that would caution any male from spousing her, Isabella had a name that was respected and adored through and through. He could not express how often her tired of her bland and submissive personality, though he used it to his advantage when he saw fit. Mike could not quite stop himself from resenting his girl friend for not having the spunk and drive that he saw inside of Jessica Stanley.

Isabella was with the blue-eyed boy for similar reasons. All she had wanted to do her entire life was please her mother and the Lady Renee had never been more proud of her daughter than when Mike was introduced. It was the only reason she even put up with him. Her friends, neighbors, and family believed in the couple wholeheartedly. Their wedding had already been planned, their life already mapped out.

This was not what Isabella saw herself interested in. It was not the life she wanted for herself. Mike was not the boy that she was in love with and she was more secure with herself to attempt in acclaiming assertion over her own life now.

"Hey Isabella." Mike said down to her, voice murmuring under the tones of the music that directed their elegant prancing. "I am quite parched. I'm going to go get myself something to drink."

"Take your time." She advised, nodding her head. Her eyes shifted around the room, looking for the only person that would stand out amongst the crowd of faces that all looked so similar. She was glad that Mike had given her an excuse to escape to the comfort of him.

She did not see him however. She was pretty sure that he was upset and trying to gather a piece of mind inside of the Forge of Dreams. She was deflated by the thought of never making it there with him.

She let herself wander outside of the auditorium, the hallways were vacant in the school.

"Edward." She said his name quietly to herself, though from wherever he was she knew that he could feel her yearning for him to appear. She'd been thinking about him all night. He could have used those thoughts to pull himself into her world. She knew that he was not here because he did not want to be. "I'm sorry to have upset you."

"Are you?" She felt the tickle of his cold breath across the back of her neck. He was behind her so suddenly that she had not given herself a chance to notice his arrival. She definitely had not heard him. She had not felt him. He was almost like a ghost. "Then should I accept your apology?"

She turned her head slightly, just enough to view his facial expression. The features of his face were hardened with some type of anger. The smirk that he flashed her said nothing of kindness.

"You came."

"I could not miss it." He clarified tersely, twirling a strand of her wavy hair around his finger. He looked down at his creator with piercing green eyes, wishing that things did not have to be so complicated. The way her brown orbs peered into him so intensely made the more unpleasant sensations inside of him melt. "You look amazing, Pretty Bella."

"You don't think that it is too much?" She blushed at his initial compliment, relishing in the way that his approval made her believe all of the kind words she'd been accepting all night.

"It is not too much. It is nearly not enough." His head cocked to the side, just slightly. "The dress, the makeup, and the hair mean nothing without you. Isabella you make those accessories come alive."

His eyes appreciated every contour of her body. He may have been imaginary but he was still a man. He noticed how the rich fabric wrapped around her body, announcing the slight curve of her hips and the suppleness of her breasts to the world. He did not disregard how the regal tone of blue accentuated her alabaster skin. He longed to touch her and the thought alone confused him, so he kept it to himself.

"I am pleased that you like it." She said, smiling love into his bones. She noticed that he still wore the same white t-shirt and the same dark jeans. He looked beautiful in the simplest of ways. "Everyone seemed to like it."

"Did Mike like it?" He asked curiously, though he had no idea what had inspired him to do so. Isabella looked at the bronze-haired boy wryly, raising her arched brows in interest to his question.

"Yes, I believe he mentioned his liking once or twice."

Edward smirked at the thought, he could everything that was going on inside of the auditorium they were stationed next to. He see inside of Mike Newton's head and he was not surprised at how duplicitous his mind looked. "I think he likes Jessica Stanley's dress just a little more."

Isabella looked toward the auditorium with furrowed brows. She did not want Edward to see the dissatisfaction on her face. It was not entirely the fact that Mike was interested in Jessica. It was the fact that she was here with him and his attention was focused elsewhere. It was disrespectful to say the least. She should not have been surprised. She'd never demanded respect from Mike before. Why would he think to douse her in it now?

"Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to Mike."

Edward opened his mouth to offer her a sardonic response but he was interrupted by the abrupt entrance of Isabella's two eccentric friends. They'd pushed their way out of the auditorium doors quite dramatically, looking for Isabella as if they actually cared about her absence.

"What now?" Edward muttered to himself, leaning his weight against the wall that was adjacent to the door. He crossed his arms over his chest impatiently. There was a dark gleam inside of his eyes.

"Isabella, we've been searching for you wildly." Alice Brandon would say, looking into the dark confused orbs of her friend. "We have some news to share with you."

"Is there something wrong?" She looked to the blonde and then the brunette. She could only wonder what was so important that interrupted the ball they'd been fussing over all week.

"It is Mike." Rosalie sneered his name, her violet eyes were full of disapproval. "He's being very inappropriate."

The imaginary friend thought it was ironic that the two girls would try their righteousness by snitching on Michael's indecency. They pretended as if they gave more concern for Isabella than Mike did. He chuckled at mockery of it all. Isabella ignored the sound of it.

"To come here with you and then completely disregard you for someone else." Alice shook her dark head. "That is just not acceptable Bella."

"I think we should leave him." Rosalie said this with mischief and dominance. There was a plan for all of the ones who'd rode with Mike to hang out after the dance was over. It was getting close to that time. The girls thought that they should simply leave with another group of friends, preferably male ones. That should put Mike in his place effectively. "Tyler said that we could ride with him."

"Do you think that following in Mike's footsteps is a very good idea?" Isabella did not want to be at the dance anymore. She did not even want to hang out with Rosalie and Alice. She wanted to be alone with Edward but it did not look like she'd get that.

"I hope his feelings are not what you're taking great care to preserve." Alice looked at her friend as if suddenly she were the weakest girl that her eyes had ever laid upon.

"Much too nice for her own good." Edward mumbled, just loud enough for Isabella to be able to make out what he'd said.

"Come on Bella." Rosalie reached for the girl's hand without receiving her consent at first. "We're leaving."

Isabella was rather quiet as Rosalie tugged her along the corridors. Mike had done worse things to her before. She wondered why all of a sudden her friends were so adamant on her leaving him behind. It did not add up in her head levelly.

"Tyler and the guys are getting the van started up." Alice announced when they'd reached the entrance door. Upon stepping outside, they realized that it had rained quite a bit while they were inside the dance. It was only sprinkling very lightly now and their exquisite hairdos were grateful for that fact. "Lets meet them across the lot."

Isabella still said nothing. She did not know how she was supposed to feel about this. She followed Rosalie and Alice anyway. She thought it would be better than staying here with Mike.

"Bella!" All three of the girls came to an abrupt stop when they heard the voice shouting her name. It came from a very familiar and discontented boy. "Where the hell are you going?"

Mike Newton was approaching the trio. The expression on his face was past unhappiness. She saw something inside of his eyes that frightened her a bit.

"We're leaving." Alice said bravely, regarding him as if he meant nothing. She would not tell Bella that he meant more to her than she was willing to say.

He stood in front of the three girls with exasperation. "Why are you leaving Bella?"

He looked at her to answer but Rosalie was the one that snapped at him so bitterly. "Because you're much too enthralled with Jessica Stanley to even pay attention to her."

"Are you fucking serious?" Mike thought he could see right through the two girl's intentions. He was very annoyed with Bella for going along with him. She was an ungrateful girl. She needed sense shaken into her. "You can't possibly believe what they're telling you."

"I have no choice but to." Isabella spoke and Mike Newton saw that she was firm with her accusing eyes.

"They are the last two females that you should ever call yourself trusting. They want my dick more that Jessica Stanley does. You're so incredibly blind Bella."

Isabella's breath expelled her lungs with that comment. It was one of those things that you realize you should have realized long ago. The group went impossibly silent and that was enough proof for Isabella. She did not have to even look into their appalled eyes.

"That is completely absurd." Rosalie defended herself, a few too many seconds too late.

"Yeah whatever." Mike dismissed her feeble claims and wrapped his strong hand around Isabella's wrist. He gripped her with a strength that said she could make no decisions without him. "You're not going anywhere with them."

It was only then that Isabella realized she'd had enough of the three of them. She did not want to waste anymore time with people who never held her best interest at heart. She thought that if she never found the courage to free herself of their poisonous presences then she would be trapped forever in their webs of control and manipulation.

"No." She said this softly and it was almost as if she'd been talking to herself.

Mike looked down to her with annoyed eyes. "What did you just say?"

Isabella made a move. She twisted her arm quite roughly out of the confines of his unyielding grasp. She did not regard the look of surprise on his face with any attention. She did not care what he thought of her any longer. Jessica Stanley could have him or even one of the two girls that stood before her. She only hoped that they would not have to endure his dangerous side like she had so many times. "I said no Mike. I am not going with you."

The small group of teenagers were shocked at her display of disobedience. It was quiet for a moment before that dangerous side of Mike came out. He lost his cool in a second. He grasped both of her arms very forcibly, tightening his clutch quite painfully around her skin.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" He shoved her back against the closest car that her body would meet. A whoosh of air was knocked out of her and a dull ache resonated down her spine. "Have you lost your fucking mind?"

Isabella was frightened to speak but not because Mike was intimidating her. She was frightened because she knew that Edward was watching. He hadn't followed the friends on their trek towards Tyler's van but she knew that he was still there. Mike had already made a mistake by putting his hands on her and Isabella knew that Edward would make him pay for that mistake.

She saw him. He emerged from within a row of cars. There was a murderous look on his face when his eyes met hers. She would plead with him not to hurt Mike. He was just a boy. He was just an unstable teenager who did not know better. He did not deserve whatever Edward was going to give to him.

"Are you listening to me at all?" Mike was yelling in her face and she realized that she had tuned out most of what he'd been saying to her. The brown-eyed girl's attention was on Edward who was still some ways across the lot. "Isabella?"

He took her face into his hands and forced her to look into his eyes. There was fire there. But only a dwindling flame compared to what heat lurked inside of Edward.

She opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she thought of him but was forced to close it just as quickly. The loud sound of screeching tires came to her attention at once. She saw Tyler's massive, blue van rounding the steep corner of the lot at an nonsensical speed. His tires hit the water slick ground at an angle that sent his vehicle spinning out of his control. She could see the panicked look on his face as he repeatedly slammed his foot into the break. The car did not slow down however. Almost as if someone had sabotaged it purposely.

"Watch out!" She heard the two girls, that were formerly her friends, screaming their warnings at them.

Isabella Swan and Michael Newton were in the best possible spot to watch the metal contraption flying towards them at a blinding speed. Isabella's first instinct was to attempt to dart out of the way but she was pressed against a car herself. Being held without the possibility of moving by a boy who was horror struck at the sight of his impending death.

Her eyes darted behind Mike's shoulders and she witnessed her imaginary friend. She saw him standing in one spot and a half later he'd hurled himself across the lot, throwing himself between the two teenagers and the vicious van. His intentions were quite clear when he'd wrapped his arms around Isabella's waist and tugged her quite easily out of Mike's grip. She realized that he was going to save her and leave Mike to be crushed.

"Edward no!" She only had enough time to shriek his name, he was moving way too quickly for her to comprehend and she was taken to the ground by the hurry in his movements. She fell out of the way of the van, just mere centimeters out of its reach. She was cold inside of Edward's arm and disoriented when the trajectory of their fall would make her slam her head against the wet concrete.

She was vaguely aware of the chaos around her, feminine voices yelling in fear and disbelief. She was able to turn her head slightly towards the accident. The sight that she saw almost erupted a bloodcurdling scream from out of the back of her throat but something made her swallow it.

Mike Newton's body was grounded into the side of the car he was pressed against. The grating tires of the van were still sliding against the gravel, still crushing him between the two frames of bulking metal. She saw that his eyes were wide open and still aware of his surroundings but there was a waterfall of blood spurting from between the lips that had cursed her so many times before.

She had to turn her head away from the sight because she was sure that she'd vomit all over herself if she continued to stare. There were noises all around now. They came in the octaves of people's voices, cell phones ringing, and the wailing of sirens. She could see the flashing colors of red, white, and blue lights but they were quite ambiguous to her blurring vision.

The last thing she saw before a malicious blackness swallowed her whole, was the sickening satisfied smile that was to represent itself upon the bronze-haired boy's startlingly beautiful face.


	11. The Forge

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><p><strong>PARACOSM<strong>

**CHAPTER 11:**

**THE FORGE**

It was a blackness and it was the most impenetrable abyss that Isabella had ever found herself in. She felt oddly as if she were sleeping somehow. She would picture herself entwined within the protective comfort of her bed sheets, tucked safely away between the four walls of her bedroom. A solitary confinement that she would willing admit herself into.

On the other hand, she was quite aware that she was not sleep. She was conscious but there was nothing to be conscious of besides the sensation of an endless fall. Every now and then the blackness around her would be streaked with the electric hues of a startling color of her choice. If she thought of red she would suddenly have enough strength to see red laced about the waning shadows, and the same would happen if she were to think of blue or pink or purple. It was almost as if this blackness was her blank canvas and that she could paint it to her liking.

She began to ponder if she could think of other things besides colors to help break out of the dark tunnel that she was falling through. She took time to contemplate a world that she wanted to manifest out of her imagination. It was her chance. She realized that she had made it to the rift. She was between her world and The Forge of Dreams now. She did not understand how she'd made it there or what she'd been doing wrong when she had actually been trying to find her way there. She only knew that she had free reign to do whatever she wanted. She did not have anyone telling her how she should conform her imaginations or which one of her fantasies would be best for her.

She was in control and she quite liked that feeling.

She thought of a place with tropical beaches. Sooty, tan sand that expelled acres across a shore, plummeted with palm trees that towered towards a blazing sun of golden decadence. There would be an abundance of mountains rising in the distance, standing so high that they could easily be spotted from the warmth of the beach. Some of them snow-capped and gently alpine while others would be sheer rolling land that sloped for continuous distances. It would be a breathtaking sight. One that induced tears of joy. A few miles of mountains would artfully transition into a sturdy forest of magic. Pines, oaks, and evergreens would soar into the sky, creating a leafy umbrella of habitable paradise for all of the startling creatures that could live in such dense greenery. Barren plains and beautiful meadows would throw themselves into the masterpiece, randomly placed but perfectly in tune with the rest of her imaginations. Off towards the west there would be a desert. Hot, sandy soil that appeared lonely and unproductive would become positively inviting in its warmth and softness. And while there was a desert, interchangeably near the east, there would be a portion of the world that was completely white. Filled with flurries of softly kissed snow flakes where the glitter of pure white would shine more innocently than ever before.

She guessed that all of these imaginations would be infused within those of all the beings that already inhabited The Forge of Dreams. All of their fantasies would be bound together to create one perfect, magnificent world. The masterpiece would tell several different stories, but they all would come together to make a flawless amount of sense.

Isabella found that the sensation of falling increased in speed. She did not know how she could interpret this fact but she seemed to be dropping at an incalculable speed. It was so quick that the streaks of color that had begun to illuminate her abyss flashed into blotches of blurry light. She soared past the rainbow of tinted hues and they soared past her, as if they were going upward to transition into the idea of somebody else's illusions. Her travels ended abruptly. The dark tunnel stopped and she landed face first into an ocean of lukewarm water.

She had not expected to be welcomed by the arms of clear-blue waves. She was a little bewildered because even though she'd been conscious it was like she was just waking up. The thought of waking up from the real world into a fabricated imagination would have sent a small smile across her face if the water would not have been jostling her around so hastily. The ocean pushed her towards the shore as if it had fingers and were guiding her towards where she wanted to be.

She made it towards the sand with aspirations that were above the clouds. The scent of calm salt and sea water, the caress of cautious sun rays, and the sight of everything she'd ever imagined was enough to leave her breathless. She stood to her feet. The fabric of an expensive blue dress clung to her like spandex and the sight of it was enough to remind her of what had happened before she'd been catapulted out of reality.

Mike Newton was dead and Edward was the cause of it. A shudder of dread and anger coursed throughout her and she noticed that the waves began to lash upon the shore quite violently. The Forge of Dreams was all of her emotions, thoughts, and imaginations bundled into one. She reminded herself of that fact as she exhaled a deep breath to calm her nerves. She needed to find her harrowing best friend. She had a lot to talk with him about and she knew that he was submerged within the beauty of this place somewhere.

She could not travel very efficiently inside of a soaked gown however. As if her thoughts had triggered it, she noticed that further down the beach there were clothing garments draped over the branch of one of the shorter palm trees. She set off towards it.

She found that it was easy to move throughout the sand. The gritty substance did not weigh her down or slow her trek. She made it to the palm tree to find a simple blue t-shirt, jeans, and the appropriate undergarments. There was a pair of converse resting beside the tree waiting for her as well. She slipped out of her dress, noting that this part of the Forge was not heavily inhabited. She seemed to be the only one here in fact.

She was sure that she would run into someone along the way but if she did not she would always have Edward.

After dressing, she continued down the beach towards a passage of parting trees. There was a trail that lead her away from palm trees and into the masses of forest trees. The world had changed before her very eyes and she thought that it was amazing. There were animals in the forest. She could hear their riff-raff in the trees that hovered above her and inside of the bushes and plants. She was not afraid. Somehow she knew that these things would not hurt her.

She continued to walk along the dirt trail. She was meandering towards a bright light. It was at the outskirts of the trees where the forest seemed to end. The closer she got to it the more she realized that it was exactly where she was supposed to be going. Her walk was ten to fifteen minutes tops. And in another instant, the world had completely changed again.

The meadow was a wonderland. It was the richest garden, filled with every flower that she could possibly think of. The grass was tall with colors. Enchanted blues, pinks, reds, yellows. They swirled endlessly with each other. She noticed him before she noticed anything else. He was sitting against the trunk of a willow tree. He was shaded and encased by drooping branches. He was idle and perfectly tranquil. The most at ease that she'd ever witnessed him.

He blended immaculately, with the rest of her imaginations. He was the finishing touch to her dream world.

"Edward!" She called his name happily, forgetting that she was very upset with him for a moment. "Edward! I made it!"

She took off running towards the boy just as he turned in recognition of his name being called. He saw the beautiful girl running at him and there was no mistaking the love that adorned the expression on her face. He stood to his feet and offered her a smile of his own. He opened his arms to her and she crashed into him with a force that almost took him to the ground.

"Now you must tell me how you were able to do it." He said curiously, he himself had not known how to instruct her. He was amazed that she'd found it by herself.

"I hit my head on the ground. I think I fainted." She looked up to him and it was easy for to remember her ill feelings. She would never forget the evil that had tucked itself inside of his smile. "I was falling through a veil of darkness. It began to transform into this place once I'd realized my imagination was in control of it."

She relinquished herself from his hold. He saw that she was upset. He could see every piece of her unfolded in front of him. He did not feel sorry for what he'd done. Mike deserved what he'd gotten and he thought that Isabella should be a little grateful for his effort. She would not have to worry about anyone abusing her anymore. Mike and Phil were out of the picture. Renee was more of an emotional burden but he had a feeling that something would have to be done to take care of her as well. He would not hesitate to do it.

"Why did you do it Edward?" She asked, looking at him with peculiar brown eyes. Her brows were creased with frustration and maybe even pain. He did not understand how she could feel contrite at all over a character that never did anything pleasant for her.

"I thought my reasoning was exceptionally clear." He looked at her drolly, eyes narrowed at the sight of her sympathy. Had she shown him such sympathy when she'd banished him beyond her consciousness? "He made me angry."

"Oh, so those who upset you deserve to be mutilated then?" She could not help the scoff that left from between her lips. Edward was a horrid person. He killed without qualms and he did it because he could. Isabella thought that he abused his power quite appallingly. She did not know why she loved him so much.

"I should find it thoroughly confusing that you're standing up for a lout that has shown you nothing but unkindness." Edward was more than upset by her questioning and disapproval. He was waiting for the day when she'd appreciate his efforts and thank him profusely. Everything that he'd ever done for her was out of love. He wished that she could see it that way. "But I expected for something so absurd to come out of you."

"You act as if you've done me a favor." Isabella shook her head wildly. Her voice was raising just a little by this point. "You act as if I asked you to do these things for me."

"All of this could have been prevented if you would have been strong enough to leave the situation a long time ago."

"You can't just do whatever you want Edward!" She shouted this, desperate for him to grasp the fact. "You can't just go around harming everyone that doesn't brand kindheartedness into your bones."

"I can do whatever the fuck I want." He spat very menacingly. He thought that she had a lot of nerve. She did not see everything good that he did for her. She did not see the pain that she'd infused within him so proficiently. She'd banished him and that was enough for him to hate her forever. But he did not. So she should be glad of that fact and keep her senseless opinions to herself.

How could she stand up to the one person that wished her well? The one person that she'd cut so deeply? It enraged Edward that his creator was upset at him over someone as impossibly insignificant as Mike Newton. Jealousy was not a word in his vocabulary that he applied to himself very often but it did seem to creep up on him when he least expected it.

"Tell me." She approached him with a more quiet, more mellow voice. She saw that she riled him up more when she would let his fiendish tendencies get to her.

"Tell you what?" He asked, refusing to lessen the contempt in his voice. He saw himself through the reflection in her brown eyes. He thought that he looked menacing and that no other word would suffice in describing him, but in reality the only thing that showed on his face was pain.

"Why did you really do it?" She wanted to hear him say something. It would not make the matters any better but she would accept it over the excuse of Mike simply making him angry. "What is the true reason?"

"It is of no consequence Isabella." Edward dismissed her easily, he saw that she was trying to get into his head. "You would not be surprised if I told you anyway."

"You're so stubborn." She huffed in a childish way, crossing her arms over her chest in displeasure. She found that she was quickly irritated with his haughtiness and audacity. He had killed someone that she knew and he did not seem the least bit sympathetic. He was supposed to be her imaginary friend. That meant that he was supposed to make her happy. "Maybe I should be like you. I can use this place to my advantage and make a new imaginary friend. One that would not show me such gruesomeness."

Edward felt something inside of him flicker at once. It was a familiar feeling. It was the only sensation that sent fear crackling through his body.

He grabbed Isabella quite forcibly but not rough enough to hurt her. That was something he would never allow himself to do.

"Now, that's not such a nice thing to say Isabella." She felt her back hit the trunk of a willow tree before she realized that Edward had even maneuvered her backwards. She was too captivated by their proximity to notice anything else. "Those are the kind of words that send people to the Land of Forgotten Dreams. You don't want to make the same mistake twice do you?"

Isabella ignored his ominous question. She looked into his face. It was so close to her own that his cold breath sparked goosebumps to life underneath her skin. She saw past the nasty smirk on his lips and the darkness around his eyes. She saw his love and his fear. Her hand came up from her side and met the smooth skin on his face. He fell into her touch almost involuntarily.

"Tell me Edward."

"Tell you?" He repeated, leaning into her warm palm. She was smooth, and lovely, and lively. His greens did not leave her browns. There was so much truth between the confusion they shared amongst each other. "What would you like to hear, Pretty Girl?"

She heard the ice that laced his term of endearment but that did not make her stop. "Anything."

"You want me to tell you that I killed him because I was jealous? Because the mere thought of him ever having a piece of your essence to himself made me sick to my stomach?" He liked the look of unease in her expression. He liked the way that he could stun her. "You want me to tell you that you belong to me and that I will not hesitate to let that fact be known? You want me to tell you that I love you, that you burn within me, or that I will never hurt anyone on your behalf again? Take your pick. Which one did you want to hear?"

The girl was completely and utterly silent. A moment passed between the imaginary friend and his creator, a moment that was mute and everlasting. They simply stared at each other. There was something charging inside of them.

Without notice, the girl had propelled herself forward. She crashed into the boy with her lips. Fire spread between the reunion of their starving mouths. They attacked each other with the sadness, the anger, the love, and the confusion that could only be brought amongst two desolate people who knew it was incredibly wrong to love each other but did it anyway.

Isabella knotted her fingers deep into the mess of bronze hair on top of Edward's head, she held him to her dearly, kissing him with an ardor that expended all of her energy. Edward held his hands planted firmly against the tree, holding his weight effectively as he leaned towards her. They were so close and yet not close enough.

Isabella became the ring leader of this kiss, gliding her tongue against his bottom lip like she had attempted once before. This time he did not pull away from her though he would hesitate slightly to deepening the kiss. She felt his lagging but it did nothing to discourage her. His bottom lip was pulled gently between her own. She nibbled him softly all the while flickering her tongue against his again. He consented and when their tongues began to wrestle they both felt impossibly electricity charged.

They were passionate against each other. Desperate almost with their attempts to spill themselves away in this kiss. Edward grasped the brown-haired teen by her hips and pulled her flush against him. There was no more space. The definition was void by now. The only thing that existed was Isabella and Edward. They could feel every part of love snugly in its place.

Edward was toned and firm. He was cool and his chill was evident even through the fabric of his t-shirt. His heart was not beating out heat or blood. There was no reason to. He was not real but that did not matter. Isabella was soft and warm. She was flushed and cherry blushed. She liked the feeling of him, the sensation of his fingers around her hip, pressed into him. She moaned into his mouth before she could catch herself and calm down her inhibitions. The sound sent shudders throughout him that he could not comprehend and he had to pull away from her because he was breathless. Though, ironically he did not necessarily have a need to breathe.

"You're intoxicating me. I'm very sensitive to you." He sighed, keeping very close to her. Her eyes were hooded with something he found unfamiliar but he decided that he liked the intensity of her gaze. "I am warm and oddly constricted."

"That's the appropriate way of it." The girl smiled at him coyly, tracing a finger over his swollen lips.

"I know not of this feeling." He announced, looking down at her with furrowed brows. He saw a satisfaction in her face somewhere. It confused him otherwise.

"But surely you know the concept?" She queried wondrously, trying to control her thoughts of him. She knew that it was not right to let herself want such things out of him. In fact, she knew that it was absurd. She did not understand herself around Edward.

She hated how evil he could be but she loved his delicateness. She feared him but wanted nothing more than to be near him. She loved him, was in love with him, despised him frequently, and all of these emotions were harbored for a boy that was a part of her imagination.

"It is a concept that you should not expect to occur between us." Edward said this levelly, refusing to acknowledge the slight disappointment that would find its way onto her face. He already hated himself for letting her get attached to him romantically, there was no way he would let those feelings escalate so extremely.

"Whatever." The girl stepped away from him, out of the range of his captivating scent.

He smiled this time at the attractive pout on her lips. She did not understand that he was only holding her best intentions at heart. It was hard enough keeping himself from believing in the love that they felt for each other, and Edward knew that the more he let things grow between them the more disappointed she would be in the end. He did not want to have that on his conscience.

"Isabella, The Forge of Dreams is waiting for you." He said her name softly, holding out his hand towards her in a gentle offer. "Let me show you around."

"That would be awfully sweet of you." She received his hand, despite her dwindling flames of irritation. There was probably nothing she wanted more than to see the fantasies of other people. It would be a magical sight. "I was a little confused coming into this place."

"Why was that?" He asked curiously, tugging her towards the other end of the meadow. It was opposite from where Isabella had entered.

"I did not encounter anyone during my trek to find you." She answered lightly, taking in every surrounding and every piece of landscape. She noticed that Edward's meadow was beginning to transition into a different part of the world. The flowers lessened and the grass drifted away into the air.

They began to walk on a much different surface. Isabella felt that her feet would sink every time she took a step. The ground was fluffy now and she would have mistaken it for a cloud if she had not noticed that the color of it was a deep pink. She realized that they were meandering through a field of cotton candy.

"I believe that is because you entered through a part of this world that did not exactly exist until the moment you fell into it." He explained, liking the way her eyes widened at the sights around her. The glee on her face lit up his entire being.

"Who made this part of the land?" Isabella saw that this field was leading them towards a giant play ground. The playground was not what brought her to speechlessness. It was the fact that the playground was completely and utterly constructed out of candy.

The swing set was held up by candy-cane poles, swirling red and white colors popped vibrantly against the cotton candy ground. The ropes of the swings were what looked like rainbow colored licorice. Isabella did not know how it could up anyone's weight but she did not doubt its safety.

The see-saw was made out of planks of hardened caramel. It did not look like it would stick to you if you were to sit upon it. The sun was shining brightly and Isabella could see that the caramel was not dripping away in melted, golden sweetness.

The sandbox was framed with layers of light-brown butterscotch and green gumdrops that were arranged into the shape of a square. There was not an ounce of sand within the box however. The structure was filled completely with purple candied sugar.

The climbing frame that led to the slide were giant lollipops. Some of them were turned horizontally to replicate the appearance of a ladder. The roof of the play house was creamy and brown. Isabella knew it to be milk chocolate. Her eyes followed the candy-straw rope bridge over to the slide and was amused to see that the slide was nothing but a large, condensed jolly rancher.

"Her name is Jellybean. She's an eccentric, little girl." Edward would say lightly, stopping near the swing set. There was a bit of a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. "She likes to sneak up on people. Even though she knows that they can read her mind."

"Aw man! No fair Edward!" The voice had startled Isabella, especially since she had not expected for it to announce itself out of nowhere. She looked around for the childish source and was surprised to see a young child emerging from out of one of the candy-corn tunnels. "I wanted to scare her."

The girl could not have been older than ten. Isabella had to admit that she was an adorable little thing. Her skin was solely pink as was her hair, though they were two very different shades of pink. Her body was a light baby-pink, one that you would find on the blanket of a newborn infant. It was a sweet, endearing color that had Isabella smiling at the girl in adoration.

Her hair was spiraling into two very long pigtails on each respective side of her head. They were tied together with purple satin bows. The dark purple did not clash with the startling shade of her hot pink tresses. It only made the color stand out more. She was dressed in a lovely white dress, the kind that Isabella's mother would make her wear on Easter Sunday. Frilly, white knee socks accessorized the dress and was matched with a spotless pair of white, baby-doll shoes.

"Well, aren't you lovely?" Isabella would say nicely, looking down at the girl with bright eyes. "I am Isabella Swan."

"You can call me Jellybean." The girl returned Isabella's smile fully blown, showing all of her two rows of sparkling white teeth. "Do you like my playground? It's really popular among the kids of the Forge."

"This place is unbelievable." She nodded her head in appreciation. "I should mention that you hone a creativity I could never hope to grasp."

Jellybean chuckled at the girl's compliment. The sound of her laughter was like bells. It was the sweetest thing that Isabella thought she would ever hear in a lifetime.

"This place is sheer creativity." Jellybean said, holding out both of her hand towards Isabella. Her arms were crossed over each other and her small hands balled into fists. "Which hand is it in?"

Isabella enjoyed the playful quality that Jellybean harbored. Her smiles were infectious and Isabella could not stop herself from cheesing. This game was familiar to her and she could say that she remembered playing it with Edward all of those years ago.

"The right hand." She guessed, tapping her fingers on top of the fist. She noted that Jellybean's skin was just as cool as Edward's was.

The imaginary child shook her head with a small smile against her lips, stray strands of pink hair fell into her face. She opened her right hand to reveal an empty pink palm and then she opened her left hand. There was a small chocolate bird inside of her hand.

"Breathe." It was the only word that the pink girl would whisper. Isabella watched Jellybean as she leaned down and blew her chilling breath against the bird. Before her very eyes, the chocolate bird came to life and began to chirp in soprano melodies. "Now fly!"

The bird took off into the air. It soared through the sky and so impossibly close to the sun that Isabella just knew it would melt away into nothingness. That did not happen however. The bird made a dip and reversed its travel. It came back the way it had began and landed swiftly on Jellybean's shoulder. Isabella's head was reeling at the awe of it all.

"So you're a dreamer?" Jellybean inquired, looking up to Isabella Swan with glowing eyes. The child quite liked the girl otherwise she would have attempted to trick her into one of the mischievous games that she liked to play so well. "How did Edward find you?"

"He's my imaginary friend." Isabella replied, sharing a warm but brief smile with the boy beside her. "I found my way into here through him."

"How utterly fascinating." Jellybean cocked her head to the side, studying the two of them loftily. "I never knew that people could imagine themselves into the Forge willingly."

"It is quite possible." Edward nodded his bronzed-head, ruffling Jellybean's pink spirals to fluster her. "Maybe Jane would like to visit."

"I am positively sure that she would just love that!" Jellybean's excitement reverberated throughout the entire playground. A few gusts of eager wind blew into them. "I can't wait until she calls me back! We're going to have so much fun!"

The imaginary friend and his creator looked on at the pink-skinned child with adulation and warmth.

"Well Jellybean, Isabella and I are going to have to take off." Edward said, smiling lightly. He laced his fingers within Isabella's and tugged her towards him. "She has to get back to her world."

"Okay, but you must promise me something Isabella." Jellybean looked up at her with the innocent eyes of a blissful child and Isabella thought that she could never say no to that face. "You have to come back and visit me soon. I can show you all of the wondrous possibilities around here."

"I promise." She said, and she was not ready when the little girl wrapped her arms around Isabella's torso in the form of a hug, the kind a child would deliver to a person that they were exceptionally fond of.

"Hold onto this." Jellybean reached inside of the pocket on the side of her pretty dress and pulled out a small candy heart. It was no bigger than a silver coin. Isabella received the gift in the hand that was not attached to Edward's. "So you will remember me."

**~~~~PARACOSM**

The two teenagers left the candy playground and began to walk again. They were not going back the way that they came which confused Isabella but she did not comment upon it. There was something else on her mind and it was bothering her immensely.

"I find it incredibly sad to know one day Jellybean will be forgotten." She could not imagine such a lively girl being sent away into a dreamless, hopeless place. The thought of it replaced every happy thing within Isabella with something forlorn.  
>I would stay here with her forever. If that meant she could stay."<p>

"That is why you must leave." Edward noted, disregarding the fact of Jellybean's fate. They all had the same destiny and he had accepted it. There was no use being sad or feeling sorry when nothing could be done about it. He was just glad that he already knew what to expect. "You'd forget your own life to live one that was not real."

"I'm still not understanding why I have to leave so abruptly." She said to him, looking ahead as they neared what appeared to be the alpines.

"I believe that the longer you stay here the more difficult it would become for you to distinguish what is real from what is imaginary." He replied evenly, making it evidently known that he would not let her live here for an escape of her own world. He did not see anything else less satisfying than living an imaginary life. "I think it would be better if you just visited in short intervals."

"Should I care what you think?" Isabella asked sarcastically, stopping before the gigantic mountains that sloped before them. She wondered briefly if he expected her to scale the mountain. "May I ask what we're doing here?"

"We need to get to the top of course." He chuckled lightly at the incredulous look on her face. "It isn't as if you could fall to your death in this place."

"I am absolutely not about to climb Edward." Isabella crossed her arms quite defiantly. She was afraid of heights and that would not change.

"Do you have a better idea on how we should get up there then?"

"Actually..." She pondered happily, looking up towards the sky with sparkling creativity. "I think that I do."

Isabella spotted a cloud in the sky. It was white and fluffy. She thought that it would be big enough to hold the two of them. She ordered it down from it's enchanted home in the heavens with the hopefulness of her thoughts and so it began to float gently toward them like a feather. Once it hit the ground, it spread itself underneath their feet. It became a thin layer of white mist that lifted them into the air. It was like an elevator in the way that it propelled them towards their destination.

Isabella couldn't help the joyous smile that captured her expression. The blue sky was like a background behind this wonderful masterpiece. She felt the warm air brushing against her face as they neared the top of the moment. The clouds waved their hellos to them and the sun seemed to be grinning. It was so bright and beautiful.

The cloud dropped them right at the highest, flattest point of the mountain. It set them onto the ground, disappeared, and then stationed itself back into the sky where Isabella had pulled it from.

"I should congratulate your imagination." Edward pressed his lips to her temple in a small kiss that meant so much. "You're still as abundantly impressive as you used to be."

"Thank you." She replied, looking over the edge of the towering landscape. They were more than a few hundreds of feet from the ground. They were so high up that she could easily spot Jellybean's playground. Though it looked more like a minuscule version of it. She could see the beach that she came in from, the forest, Edward's meadow, and many other places that she hoped to visit. "I can come back soon right?"

"Of course." Edward nodded his head, though he wanted to make it clear to her that she still had important things to do in her world. He did not want her to forget that she still needed answers from that harrowing shrink of hers and Doctor Cullen. If she continued to come back here she would undoubtedly lollygag and find the things that she once found important to be insignificant. He did not want that to happen. "You must not leave your world behind though."

"Okay okay." Isabella decided that she was tired of Edward repeating the same thing. She could not see how being trapped in this intricate land could be a burden. "What do I have to do to get back?"

Edward came up behind her and peered over her shoulder. He could see what she saw. This place was everything that was magical and the only way for it to exist was for it to not be real. It was lacking substance and depth. This place was only illusion. It was a black canvas that could be repainted over and over again. The picture would never stick though.

"Trust me." He said against her neck, kissing her skin softly and chastely. "Now, wake up."

Isabella did not expect for Edward to shove her forward. She naturally lost her balance and fell face first off of the mountain. Her arms flailed as she zoomed towards the solid ground. She only had time to widen her eyes before her body would meet up with the hard land below.

She tried to scream but instead she jolted awake.

The first thing her eyes noticed were white walls. She knew that this was not her bedroom. It was cold and smelled of bleach and other strong cleaning materials. She sat up with a skyrocketing heart beat. The monitor beside her began to beep rapidly and she realized that she was in the hospital.

Everything was incredibly muggy. Her thoughts were jumbled and so was the puzzling sensation of whiplash. It took her a while to remember where she had just come from. She'd made it to the Forge of Dreams. It was a great thing. She couldn't be so sure now that it hadn't all just been a dream and not a personal, lucid experience though.

She looked over to her right and saw the hospital phone next to her pillow. She decided to call a nurse in for the uncomfortable pressure that was ramming against her head. She raised her hand to grasp the phone, the one that was not hooked up with IVs, and she noticed that she had been clutching her fists very tightly.

She calmed her nerves and opened her hand.

Inside, there sat a small candy heart.


End file.
